Not What You Expected
by How-not-to-do-something
Summary: There's nothing like coming home. For good or ill. Rated T for violence and mature themes. Complete.
1. Where it all Began

**A/N: So after a little vacation, I decided to pick up my fanfiction career again, beginning with...** _ **this**_ **. Why this borderline ridiculous idea? I'm still working on that myself.**

 **May have something to do with RWBY being a big thing in the social circles I hang out in. It may be because although I've always been fascinated with Monty Oum's creation, I've never truly gotten into it as much as I wished I have, so this is a way of addressing that interest. It definitely has something to do with the three month long Stargate marathon I subjected myself to (chosen after a coin toss between this and Battlestar Galactica, guess which series won).**

 **Or maybe I just want to see a happy ending. So this a means to get there. Eh, who cares.**

 **This is How-Not-To-Do-Something, and I bring you, "** _ **Not What You Expected.**_ **"**

00000

No matter what she did, she couldn't keep her eyes away from the window.

It was hardly surprising. Outside, just beyond the couple centimeters of reinforced glass, was a bright shining summer day. Not just any summer day, one of the last of the year before the oncoming fall. The temperature was warm without being stifling, the wind comfortable without being overwhelming, and there was just enough cloud cover to give some shade to those willing to go for it.

The eighteen year old student longed to go out to play, though she knew there were many things that had to be taken care of ﬁrst. Later, she promised herself.

"Yo Ruby!"

Ruby Rose, Huntress-in-training (and soon to be full graduate) was snapped out of her daydream. To her mild embarrassment, she realize she had been staring out the window in the middle of the hallway.

The one who spoke, a newer student by the name of Valentine Trail, jogged up to her wearing a hopeful smile. A sixteen year old boy with a pair of brown leather pants to go with his dark jerkin, he approached her carefully, noting her thoughtful expression.

"Hey, is this a good time?" he asked quizzically. Ruby sighed, pushing her hands into her pockets. Her new outﬁt, similar but different to the black dress she wore in one form or another for years, was still something she had yet to get used to.

"Good a time as any. What's up?" she asked, taking off in a sedate walk away while he easily kept pace.

"I mean it, if you're busy." Valentine tried to backpedal.

"C'mon, spill it." she urged friendlily.

Ruby couldn't help comparing this kid to herself, he was practically a male version of her when she ﬁrst arrived at Beacon. Young, easily excitable, gregarious, and managed to make team leader despite the odds. Team VERE was already on the road to great things in the few months since it was formed. Not to mention he was almost as big of a weapons geek as she was.

"Well, it's about professor Oobleck's last assignment..." Valentine trailed off nervously, prompting another sigh from Ruby. If he had one fault, it was his impulse to pester others for help whenever he felt he didn't get something. And there were a lot of things he didn't get.

"History of the Faunus rebellion?" Ruby probed. He nodded, giving a few other students a look. This time of day the dorms were beginning to get crowded as the students returned from a long bought of classes and training.

"Yeah. It's not a big thing, right?" he asked carefully.

"Like when I helped you adjust Foe-Smiter?" she asked, referring to his battleaxe/riﬂe weapon of choice.

"That wasn't hard, I just couldn't ﬁgure out how to keep the recoil down." They passed by a taped off wing of the dorm, plastered with 'DO NOT CROSS' signs. Earlier there were construction crews working on it, but they had long since left.

"Or the time I got Yang to ﬁx Raoul's bike?"

"Well..."

"Or when I helped you with Goodwitch's class?"

Valentine dropped his head in defeat. She smiled and patted his shoulder, making him pick up with faint hope. Ruby bent over to cup her hand around her mouth.

"Meet me in the library tomorrow at ten, bring the twins." she said in a conspiratorial whisper. He beamed and nodded, taking off in a sprint to his nearby room which he shared with the other members of VERE.

Ruby started to pass the same room, but she couldn't help herself. It was stupid, it was pointless, but she had to stop. She had to stop and give the de facto home of the new students another look. A thoughtful one, similar to the outside view she admired just a few minutes back from when she left her last class of the day. But this look lack any of the positive spin the last one had.

The room made her stop for one reason, only one. She counted the current inhabitants as her friends, but she couldn't forget who had once occupied the bedroom. Four someones that, try as she might, never entirely left her mind.

She shook her head with a huff and moved on, pushing the worn thoughts from her mind. Ruby didn't blame VERE (Valentine Trail, Elise Kettu, Raoul Oro, and Erik Kettu), not one bit. With the reduced number of dorms available nowadays, it was foolish to leave a perfectly good room empty. But she couldn't forget who had once lived there.

Ruby reached her own shared room, the unofﬁcial headquarters of Team RWBY. Without any hesitation she pushed aside the open door, discovering that she wasn't the ﬁrst one there.

"Hey guys." she greeted, giving both the girls a nod.

"Hey Ruby." greeted Blake Belldonna, already changed into pajamas and busy being engrossed in a book. The black haired Faunus was perhaps the least changed since she arrived at Beacon. Not to say she was still the same; Ruby knew a corny joke involving a clown that never failed to get at least a giggle from her. Lately though, she seemed much more remote from them. She suspected (and feared) that soon she would take her leave of them, no matter how much she assured them all of the contrary.

"Did you pick up my book?" asked the third member of RWBY, Weiss Schnee. The pale heiress was changed into sleepwear as well, currently busy with a small pile of schoolwork.

"Yep." Ruby said, handing over the textbook she held under her arm for the past ﬁfteen minutes.

The once haughty aristocrat absently snagged it, muttering a "thanks" before turning back to the work. Her brow was furrowed, her attention ﬁxated solely on the papers. Ruby worried for her too; no matter how much Weiss downplayed it, her father and her sister were getting more and more insistent that she return to them. Soon, she would have to go back to Atlas, then she would be effectively out of her life. It was a given she would stay in touch, but it wouldn't be the same.

"Say, has anyone seen Yang?" Ruby asked suddenly, looking around the room as if the blonde was hiding.

"Said she was heading down for a snack." Weiss answered distantly.

"Probably to see that one new guy, what's his name again?" Blake shook her head and went back to her book.

Ruby frowned a little at the information. But just as she grabbed a towel in preparation of taking a shower, a series of stomps came from the direction of the hallway. The door she left open a crack was ﬂung aside, revealing a grinning blonde by the name of Yang Xiao Long. Tall, well endowed, and bristling with enthusiasm, she proudly beheld the room with a large plate tucked under her left arm, held level by her steadying hand.

"Right there." Weiss mumbled.

"Just in time. I bring good tidings and treats." Yang, Ruby's sister and self proclaimed badass announced. She lifted the plate around, a delicious aroma wafting into the room.

All three girls stopped what they were doing to get a good long look at the large ceramic plate, blinking in surprise after a few seconds.

"Yang, where and how did you get ahold of that many mufﬁns?" Blake asked ﬁrst.

The blonde, still clad in her school uniform for the moment, didn't answer right away. In the blink of an eye and a ﬂutter of rose petals, the red toned girl was on the other side of the room, snatching up three of the warm mufﬁns too fast to see. Ruby took a second to savor the baked pastries in her grasp, before looking up guiltily at the dry expressions of Blake and Weiss. "Sorry."

"Anyway, where and how?" Blake repeated. Weiss stared at Ruby disapprovingly, made much worse when the leader took a bite of the ﬁrst.

"A gift from Kyle Cirrus, he made these for me" Yang answered, stepping forward to hold out the plate. Weiss's stare mercifully left Ruby, allowing her to notice the book bag held over her shoulder had a bulge in it now.

"That new boyfriend of yours?" Ruby asked, ﬁnishing one mufﬁn and moving onto the next. When Blake snagged a couple, Yang swept the plate over to the still irritated Weiss.

"I get the feeling you're using him." Blake opined.

Yang nearly jumped, moving around to face her while keeping the plate outstretched. " _Blake_! I'm offended that you think I'm so shallow that I'd use a man to get free food, even if he is a chef in training." she said in mock outrage.

Weiss gave in with a sigh, reaching out to take a couple herself. Taking a bite out of the ﬁrst, she found them quite good.

"That wasn't a no." Blake noted.

Yang looked away, indignity sliding into evasive guilt. "Well, if he wants to make some treats and then gift them to me, then what right do I have to complain?"

"Knew it. That thing in your bag from him too?" Weiss asked neutrally.

Yang shook away her excuse to set the plate down on the nightstand, going for the bag once her hands were free. None of them stared at her right, at the misshaped hand missing a pinkie, most of her ring ﬁnger, and the ﬁrst knuckle of her middle. The last especially made a rude gesture she rarely used lack the impact it once had. Though she downplayed it, they all knew how much the injury bothered her.

"Nope, it's something I've been saving for a while." Yang withdrew the object, along with a set of plastic cups.

"Ta-da!" Blake and Weiss stared blankly, while Ruby raised an eyebrow. The large bottle looked almost like-

"Wine?" the white haired girl said disbelievingly.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Yes Weiss, I bought alcohol so my sister can be more like Qrow, c'mon." she shook her head. Ruby felt it was time to approach again, maybe to grab more mufﬁns.

"This is a brand of grape soda, they package it up like wine so kids can pretend to be socialites." Yang explained, mindful of the socialite she was speaking to.

"Really?" Ruby raised her brow. She had no idea such things existed.

"Yep. I can't get alcohol myself, at least not anything worth the effort. Anyway, that's not the point." Yang grabbed the small cups, proceeding to give one to each of her teammates.

"The point is?" Blake asked. Once there was one in all of their hands, Yang popped the top of the bottle with a small carbonated hiss.

"Symbolism." Yang poured a cup for herself ﬁrst, ﬁlling up Ruby's next, followed by Blake's, and ending with a still puzzled Weiss.

"So, we're drinking grape soda because...?" Ruby trailed off, giving the cup an odd look.

"Celebration. In two weeks we graduate, then it's off to the big wide world." Yang answered cheerfully.

The red huntress wasn't fooled. She knew her sister had been making some discreet inquiries regarding the whereabouts of Adam Taurus, doing her best to keep it on the down low. Recently a lead had turned up, one she was going to check out the moment they left Beacon. Whether anyone wanted to join her was ultimately not important.

Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Her three friends, people she could count on like no one else. And soon, they would all be gone. Not permanently, but the chances of them reuniting were slim.

"And you want to drink soda to celebrate." Weiss said ﬂatly.

"For tonight. I called in some favors, reserved a spot in that new club downtown tomorrow. I'm thinking we should have one last big bash" she proclaimed.

Rather than a chorus of "Yes!" she was expecting, her teammates and friends all looked away.

"I have to help Valentine with some schoolwork tomorrow." Ruby admitted.

"Presentation." from Blake.

"This has to be done in the next few days." Weiss stated.

Yang dropped her head and visibly deﬂated. "You guys are no fun." she muttered.

"We can always do it some other day." Ruby suggested. Yang picked her head up cautiously, checking the others.

"Sure, after tomorrow I'm free." Blake added.

"Once this assignment is done, my schedule is cleared." Weiss shrugged.

Yang stood back up and beamed. "So, day after tomorrow?" she asked, this time getting nods.

"Works for me. A toast then?" Blake asked.

"To what?" Weiss inquired.

"Dunno, didn't get that far." Yang admitted. Ruby looked into her glass and wondered. What should they toast to?

"To Beacon." Yang said, lifting her glass up to the middle of the room.

Weiss thought for a moment before lifting her own. "To our friendship."

"For those that couldn't be here." Blake put hers forward.

By her side, Ruby's hand folded into a ﬁst. As much as she wanted to be sad about their parting, she found that she really couldn't. For she too was leaving.

Cinder Fall. The woman and her faction infiltrated under the guise of a festival of friendship, stealing the power of the Fall Maiden and attacking Beacon, their home. Her friends gave everything they had to stop her, and it was frankly a miracle that the academy was still standing. Wrecked, bloodied, but still there, proudly deﬁant in the face of destruction. At a great cost in lives however; Penny, Coco, Amber, Sun, scores of others just in the grounds, never mind the havoc wrought upon Vale itself.

So many were lost that day. Ruby vowed to ﬁnd Cinder, and make her _pay_. Help would be appreciated, but she was fully prepared to do it alone. It didn't matter what happened to herself, as long as the woman no longer drew breath. She would make sure of it.

But that wasn't something she could bring up in front of them, even though she assumed they already knew. Later there would be vengeance, but for now...

"To the best years of our lives. Lets see if we can do better." Ruby said with a smile.

The four friends, soon to go their separate ways, brought their cups together.

00000

...

00000

Ruby slowly awoke. Never a light sleeper, she realized to her great annoyance there was a great deal of commotion in the room. Someone was making a lot of racket, noise which dragged her out of a wonderful dream involving cookies and her friends from team-

"Let go of me!"

Her eyes snapped open, blinking her way out of the bed and into a combat stance. She needed a moment to comprehend the situation in front of her. Blake and Yang were over Weiss's bed, struggling to keep the heiress down. For some reason the white toned girl was snarling, struggling to get up. Finally she used her semblance which knocked both of them aside with a flash of glowing circles. She was out of her bed and powering to the door in no time.

Ruby was faster though, even without using her own semblance. She blocked the door deﬁantly, trying to understand what was going on.

" _Move_!" Weiss barked, rune covered circles forming around her. With her widened eyes and her chest shuddering with breath, she looked like she was in a haze.

"Weiss, stop." Ruby commanded. Behind her Yang and Blake recovered, getting ready to tackle her again.

"Get out of the way Ruby." Weiss snapped, ﬂickering her wild gaze to the door.

"Please, what's going on?" she tried pleading, blocking the exit.

"What gives? It's three in the morning." Yang growled irritably.

"Doesn't matter, I have to go." Weiss snapped, not backing down.

"Why?" Ruby urged, desperately wishing to know what got into her friend.

"I know where they are, just have to get there now." she half snarled the answer.

"Who?" Blake probed.

" _JNPR_! I know where JNPR is!"

Ruby's thoughts derailed. Yang was the ﬁrst to get her wits back, starting with a crisp "Huh?"

Weiss ﬂipped her head around with a scowl. "You're not stopping me. I have to get going this instant." she barked.

"You...you know where JNPR is." Ruby repeated numbly. Her wild gaze went back to the door to give an impatient nod.

Th red huntress was slowly putting her thoughts back together, through the fog of interrupted sleep. Despite her tired mind scrambling her thoughts, she was growing more and more convinced Weiss had just uttered the words that Ruby had been waiting for since _That_ day, almost three years ago now. What they all wanted to hear but no one had spoken.

Blake carefully raised a placating hand. "Back up. How do you know this?" she asked diplomatically. She sent a guarded look at Yang, ﬁnding her in the same state as herself.

Just behind the agitated heiress their leader's eyes were widening, emotions surging within her she hadn't experienced in so long, she had forgotten what they felt like.

"I... I..." Weiss looked away, the frenzied look in her eyes falling away.

She looked away, swaying where she stood as whatever fueled her faded. Yang felt conﬁdent enough to approach, gently taking an arm to lead her back to bed. Weiss resisted feebly, but in the end she let herself be sat down on the mattress.

"I don't know." she said quietly, her gaze dragging to the ﬂoor. Again Blake and Yang looked at each other, noting Ruby had her attention fixated on the white toned girl.

"Please, from the beginning." she said ahead of the others. Though Weiss was staring at the ﬂoor, she turned her head to the side in embarrassment.

"I... I had a dream." she shyly admitted.

"This wasn't like any dream I've ever seen from you." Yang said in concern, hovering close by.

"I know. This was...it was different. It felt so real." Weiss shook her head again, running her hands through her hair.

"But you saw JNPR." Ruby spoke with gravitas, but masking the excitement in her tone was impossible.

"I did. At least, I think I did." Weiss conﬁrmed, not meeting their eyes yet.

"What happened in your dream?" Blake pressed.

She took a shuddering breath before speaking. "I was, well, it was like those out of body experiences you read about in the tabloids. I was there, but I wasn't. Almost like I was watching it from a scroll."

"Okay…?" Ruby gently prodded.

"There was this open ﬁeld. There were a few trees, lots of grass, a blue sky, and a dirt path. Like some of the open areas in Atlas, the few that aren't Grimm infested. Nothing else though, except this enormous golden pyramid in the distance" Yang raised an eyebrow, but she ignored it. "But right by where I was, there was this weird statue. A large black circle with steps leading up to it. Never seen anything like it before."

"Go on." The red toned girl's eyes were almost glowing, to the growing concern of her unaffected friends.

"When I looked around, I saw them all. Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, and Jaune. Just like how they were the morning they vanished. They were walking side by side, going down the path. One of them, Nora I think, said something and they all broke out laughing. I didn't hear what it was though. They were walking right up to the circle, and Jaune went to this little altar nearby it. Thats t. I woke up and I just knew where they went that day." Weiss shuddered out a strained breath.

Yang approached to put a hand on her shoulder, cursing her lack of eloquence. What she was about to say was going to tear down not just the hopes of Weiss, but her sister too. The blonde wished she knew a better way to phrase it.

"Weiss, it was just a dream." she said softly, acutely aware of the way Ruby's gaze snapped to her in shock.

What she was hoping for was reluctant agreement, followed by a long consoling session which was likely to yield a lot of tears. Yang accepted the facts a long time ago, everyone else did. Her sister was the only one who refused the truth; whenever she brought it up Yang smiled and played along, just like Weiss and Blake did. Ruby had grown up a lot in the past year, but she still clung to her beliefs. None of them had the heart to tell her otherwise.

Her hopes were dashed when Weiss angrily shoved her hand away. "It wasn't. I know where to go, I've wasted enough time." she tried to get up, but Blake took over by not-so-gently grabbing her shoulders and forcing her back down. Yang inched closer to Ruby, ready to capture her in the hug she knew she was going to need.

"Weiss, please." Blake quietly pleaded. The three of them made an agreement a long time ago, a month after four of their friends were declared dead. It was done after they cemented the fact with a quiet funeral. Not the major one thousands across the Four Kingdoms attended, a simple ceremony for all four of them. It was an event Ruby was pointedly excluded from.

Weiss lifted her head, showing Blake the weary expression of her friend. "I know. I know, I know. But it was so real. They're alive. Out there, somewhere. I think-no, I'm sure, I can ﬁnd them. Please." when she rose from the bed again, Blake didn't stop her. Her bloodshot eyes went to each of them in turn, showing a rare moment of weakness. Weiss looked so vulnerable as she all but begged.

"I don't want you to think I'm crazy. But I have to do this. So please, just give me a chance." she was trembling, going to each of them in turn.

Yang and Blake exchanged a look once again. In the end, one of them had to give in. Otherwise they risked tearing the team apart; it was going to happen, but not yet.

Finally the former sighed. "Not what I had in mind for the last few days of Beacon." Yang admitted. Weiss's eyes lit up, at the same time as Ruby's. Blake looked unconvinced, but after ﬂickering her golden gaze around she gave a hesitant nod.

"Alright, lets do it." Ruby said excitedly. Weiss all but jumped in excitement.

"Great! Now c'mon, there isn't a moment to-" Yang darted over to snag her shoulders, stopping her from sprinting to the door. Weiss sent a confused look her way away as she halfheartedly struggled to no avail.

"Weiss. It is." Yang glanced at the clock on the bed stand. "Three thirty in the morning. Everyone but us is asleep. Now, at the crack of dawn we'll go searching. Until then, try to get some rest." she gently commanded.

"But-"

"No one else is up. Besides, it's been three years. I think JNPR can wait another day." Yang consoled. Weiss deﬂated, falling back on the bed.

"So, where are they?" Ruby asked quickly.

"I don't suppose they've been in Vacuo this whole time." Blake commented. Weiss shook her head, sighing under her breath.

"No. I don't know the speciﬁc spot, but I know it's somewhere in Forever Fall." she admitted, which made all three sigh.

"Of course. If it was that simple then why would we have to do it." Yang muttered.

"So we'll have to use one of Beacon's Bullheads. Good thing I've been taking ﬂying lessons." Weiss brightened up.

"Hate to stop the fun here." Blake interrupted carefully, "But we can't just ask Goodwitch to borrow an airship for fun."

Weiss snapped her ﬁngers "We have a reason. Ruby, you said before that Valentine has been falling behind with his studies?" she asked quickly, grinning with her as the red toned girl nodded excitedly.

Yang rolled her eyes. "There's no way she'll approve that."

 _Hours later..._

"There's no way she approved this." Valentine said excitedly. Beside the teen Yang nodded moodily, still between disbelieving and amazed.

"I know right?" said the ﬁrst of the diminutive twins, Erik Kettu. His ears twitched with excitement.

"This is cool." agreed the second, Elise Kettu, her own stubby triangular ears twitching in sync with is.

Ruby was in the back with them, her head ﬂipping between the twins as they spoke. Erik and Elise Kettu, Faunus twins. Light complexioned, brownish red hair, short fox ears, matching blue shirt and jean outﬁts, identical light armor on the arms and thighs. At a glance, copies of each other. Despite being boy and girl, they looked almost the same. The easiest way she (most everyone really) could tell them apart was by the hair; Elise had hers at shoulder length while Erik kept his in a bowl cut.

"Yeah, cool. Raoul, what do you think?" Yang spoke up brightly, trying to distract herself from being overwhelmed by the kids. The golden toned teen grunted, never moving from his window seat in the small cabin.

The ﬁrst thing most people noticed about Raoul was his size. He towered over people, looking down on almost everyone. The only one in Beacon who was taller was the current leader of team YVRF, Yatsuhashi. His preferred gear of chainmail covered clothes and a large mace only increased his intimidation. But he wasn't a bully, far from it. Raoul was taciturn, rarely speaking aloud and letting others make the decisions. He was still as brave as they come; during initiation in the Emerald Forest he allegedly took down a Deathstalker by himself. The teen's biggest falling was a quiet case of claustrophobia, hence why he stayed next to the window.

"Nice conversation." Yang said lamely.

Valentine turned to speak to Yang about something (he at least had enough sense to not ogle her while she was aware of him) but she stood up to quickly power to the cockpit, keeping her hands on the seats to steady herself. The tiny Bullhead was speedy, meant for quick trips from Beacon to the surrounding areas. This meant it was vulnerable to turbulence, as well as any prowling Nevermore.

She grabbed the back of the pilot and navigator chairs, looking out to the red forest. Blake had the controls at the moment, taking over for Weiss. Yang wanted to say it was a surprise the black haired girl knew how to ﬂy, but she thought it really wasn't. In any case, it beat the increasingly imbalanced heiress from holding everyone's lives in her hands. After all she'd been through, Yang didn't want to meet her end in a crash. At least not with her friends with her.

"We're close." Weiss said, pointing out to a seemingly random point.

"Where do you want me to set it down?" Blake asked. In the back Valentine bellowed in laughter over some joke.

Yang furrowed her brow, scanning the horizon for a moment. After a second of looking she pointed to a ﬂat stone mesa. "There."

Weiss frowned. "That's not it."

"But what we're looking for is in this general area, so its close enough." Yang told her, watching the girl slump into her seat.

"That's where I'm landing then." Blake shrugged off. Adjusting her grip on the controls, the bullhead gently lost altitude on its way to the designated landing spot. The stomachs of all three girls ﬂuttered for a moment, none of them paying any attention to the feeling.

Sensing someone behind her, Yang twisted her head around. Unsurprisingly, her sister was gingerly making her way up to the cockpit, while the four underclassmen were busy checking their gear. She made room for Ruby, guessing what she intended. Once the entire Bullhead shuddered with a landing, she started to speak.

"Alright, here's how we're going to do this." Ruby said quietly, barely audible over the droning engines. Both Blake and Weiss twisted around, listening intently. "I've already told VERE this is a training mission. They think we're doing a search and destroy mission, thinning out the Grimm so they won't get overwhelmed. One of us will have to stay here to keep track of them, the rest will fan out to ﬁnd JNPR. We'll alternate every four hours, break for lunch, and be back here for the night. I'll stay here ﬁrst, then Yang, Blake, and Weiss last. We have three days." she explained. No sooner did a frown start to appear on their faces did she sigh.

"Any clue will work. Even if its just." she paused to take a breath. "What's left of them. Something to bury at least."

All three girls shared am uncertain look, cringing at themselves. Ruby wasn't a fool, she could see the writing on the wall just as anyone else could.

"What if we don't ﬁnd anything? We didn't last time." Blake mentioned, grimacing. She remembered quite clearly combing over this same stretch of woods years ago, two months of empty promises and fruitless searching.

"I know its a long shot. But if there's a chance, I'll take it." Ruby answered plainly. A sigh left her sister, the Faunus, and the heiress at the same time.

"Lets do it." Yang agreed ﬁrst. She made up her mind; even if it was just a fools errand, she would do this for her.

From the back the hatch swung open. "Hey! We doing this or what!?" Valentine called.

00000

...

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 **A/N: And boop. I do not own a single thing in this, I'm just playing around here. The only profit I'm making is emotional satisfaction. Read, review, flame, or ignore this thing. You do what you want to do.**


	2. Lost Secrets

**A/N: Just a forewarning: I may or may not arbitrarily decide to drop this. If you really are interested in the story? Too bad for you.**

00000

 _The next day..._

Blinking upwards, Ruby let loose two shots. The recoil from Crescent Rose drove her skyward, setting her up for the kill. The rounds hit the Deathstalker on its back, punching jagged holes in its carapace. The thing roared, raising its massive pincers up along with its tail. A false opening, if she dove now the stinger would impale her.

That was where the twins came in. Elise and Erik darted over, remarkably fast as they kept on a simultaneous attack run. The Deathstalker saw them and tried to strike, but the two presented an equal threat, making the Grimm hesitate on which one to attack ﬁrst. It was a delay they exploited by each leaping onto the pincers, their trusty cutlasses (imaginatively named Lefty and Righty) sinking into the nerve clusters controlling the claws.

The Grimm tried to slam its pincers together, but the two nimbly jumped out of the way. For a moment Erik seemed to shimmer and fade, while Elise practically glowed. When it swiped at her, she shimmered out at the same time he started to glow. It launched its stinger at him, missing the teen by an uncomfortably close margin. He was saved by a powerful tug from his other arm, his sister taking the chance to yank him out of the way. Ruby descended with her treasured scythe extended, bringing the weapon into a vicious slice that severed the tail before it could retract.

Just as she landed with a powerful thump, the Kettu siblings charged once again, this time they were both glowing. With a war cry both of the cutlasses were plunged into the Deathstalker's eyes, tearing through the soft tissue and into the vulnerable mass underneath. In unison the twins yanked their swords out, taking a moment to admire the scorpion's disintegrating form. Ruby didn't, she was already on the move the second she conﬁrmed it was dead.

A glance showed her Raoul was ﬁne; a half dozen Beowolves were upon him, but between his own durable Aura and the heavy chainmail he was fond of, their powerful blows weren't fazing him. With each swing of his mace Striker he sent one ﬂying away, though only a few died from the ﬁrst blow, necessitating either a second one or someone else to ﬁnish them off. As she blinked past him a Beowolf had its head knocked clean off, dissipating into ash. The twins were right behind her, going to help him out.

Valentine was having some trouble however. He cleaved a Beowolf in half, only to get sent ﬂying by an Ursa which took the chance to get him while he was distracted. To the boy's credit he only bounced off the rocky ground once before he got back on his feet. In a seconds time he had Foe-Smiter in rifle form, ﬁring off a single Dust charged bullet at the creature.

It missed. Ruby sighed to herself as she closed in, feeling some regret at doing what many in faraway Signal academy derisively termed "cherry picking" by carving the bear in twain while it was occupied by Valentine. She didn't like stealing kills, it made her feel like she was taking advantage of others. Nevertheless she consoled herself by promising to tell him about proper aiming.

Landing hard, she locked eyes with the last Grimm in sight, which was another Ursa. For her, the monster was no real issue. To the young students, especially Val, it might pose a problem. Not one as bad as the Berigel which led this pack, a threat she dealt with first to avoid any hassles.

She blinked closer, though she had little intention of slaying this one. Valentine darted over, Foe-Smiter held at the side for a slash. To help she flashed within a meter of the Ursa, making it swipe at her. Blinking away easily, it was left wide open for him to attack. With a loud cry he swept his axe up, beheading the monster in one go. The creature was already disintegrating before its head hit the ground.

Out of the corner of her vision Ruby saw one more Grimm, a tiny Boarbatusk. Shrugging nonchalantly she fired off a single shot, impacting between its eyes. It dropped immediately, dissolving away just as the teen realized it was there. His attempt to react was awkwardly cut short, and he lowered his axe bashfully.

A quick sweep confirmed the area was clear. Ruby saw only four other living things in the area, all of them in good condition. Valentine was checking around too, his breathing heavier than hers from the short fight. Raoul was tromping his way back to the camp, Striker resting on his broad shoulder. The Kettu twins were flanking him, giggling over some inside joke. All of them looked unharmed. Giving a deliberate glance at Valentine, Ruby waited for him to make the necessary call instead of stepping on his authority.

It took him a few seconds longer than she liked, but he called out, "Everyone alright?"

"We're fine." the twins said in unison.

"I'm good." the big teen said. Valentine quietly sighed, likely in relief.

"Gotcha. Someone go check out the airship, make sure its okay." he directed.

"On it." the twins said excitedly, taking off in an instant. With that accomplished, he surveyed the camp he shared with team RWBY, checking to see how badly it suffered the Grimm attack. To his satisfaction the damage was minimal.

"You okay?" Ruby asked him, snapping him out of his inspecting. Raoul walked up to them, lowering his mace to the ground once he was by them. She too felt it was safe enough, and put away Crescent Rose for the time being. Valentine finally retracted his axe, only once he noticed everyone else had done the same.

"I'm good. Raoul?" he asked, to which the big teen grunted neutrally.

"Good." Valentine said. His teammate and his senior/friend started to move away, but when he sighed they paused, the latter taking a second to glance at the red forest.

"Ruby, if you don't mind me asking, did something about that pack seem weird to you?" he asked carefully.

Raoul shrugged, his chain mail rustling with the movement. "This is the real wilderness. Grimm out here are worse."

"He's right. Ones close to Beacon tend to be weaker since they get pruned so often." Ruby agreed.

In truth, she too thought there was something _off_ about the diverse Grimm pack which attacked their camp. Not at the variety, that part was odd but far from unheard of. It was subtle, she didn't notice until after the Berigel was slain. But she began to see how they attacked with reckless abandon, showing only a hint of tactical thought. Based off the size of them, they should have been mature enough to show something more than mindless violence.

"Oh, okay. Well, at least you guys are here." Valentine commented.

Ruby nodded in agreement and turned back to the trees again with a guarded look. When her scroll beeped she grabbed it, quicker than she meant to. Seeing the upperclassmen occupied the two teen trundled back to the camp to clean up. The clock showed it was the scheduled they were supposed to check in, to her quelled disappointment. Currently her screen showed two icons blinking, pictures belonging to Weiss and Yang. Touching the glowing surface, she briefly wondered why Blake wasn't on yet.

"- _hing on this end either, oh she's on. Hey Ruby, how's things at the camp?_ " Yang greeted cheerfully, her voice tainted with the usual distortion wireless chat caused.

A quiet sigh left her. "A pack of Grimm hit the camp. Everyones fine, but some of the food was wrecked." she reported, glancing over the mild destruction.

" _Nothing too bad?_ " Weiss asked in concern.

"Just some of the juice. So, I'm guessing no luck out there." Ruby said, her tone showing some of her disappointment. Both girls sighed.

" _Not a thing. Found some pretty rocks though._ " Yang tried to cheer her up, despite knowing it was pointless.

" _No sign here. Say, have either of you heard from Blake in the past hour?_ " Weiss suddenly asked.

Ruby frowned. "I haven't actually. Hang on, I'll-"

Just as the words leave her lips, the scroll beeped again, the last team member's icon popping up to join the chat. Tapping on it, the dark haired girl's picture lit up.

" _Hey Blake, anything-_ " Yang began.

" _What are you guys doing right now?_ " the faunus demanded.

"Um, just checking in, why?" Ruby answered carefully, raising an eyebrow at the screen.

" _Get back to the camp, I'll meet you there_." was all Blake said before she cut the connection, leaving all three of them confused and worried.

Fifteen minutes, a raid in the Bullhead cargo hold, and a hasty explanation to VERE later, Ruby found herself trekking along a natural path, following after Blake. Yang and Weiss were behind her, neither of them in any better state than she was. For whatever reason the dark haired girl refused to look at any of them, she simply powered forward along a route only she knew. In the meantime Ruby kept her attention on the surroundings, warily tracking the treeline. Several shapes which were likely Grimm darted in and out of sight, stalking the four. Keeping her gaze on the trees, Ruby put only enough attention to keep track of where her feet were falling.

When Blake stopped in place, she accidentally bumped into her. Recovering quickly, she let out a quick "Sorry." before looking to see what made her cease moving. The reason was her staring into a dark cave, one roughly ten meters in diameter.

"Creepy." Yang commented.

"I found it by accident. Some Grimm ran in there, when I went after them... well, c'mon." Blake powered inside rather than continuing. Ruby followed her in without a second thought, but the blonde and the white haired girl hesitated for a moment. Finally they sighed at the same time and walked after them.

Once inside, the prize of Blake's raid was revealed: glow sticks. She started cracking the simple lights and dropping them, illuminating the dark and cold space. The light wasn't much, just enough to show the outline of the cave tunnel.

"So, what'd you find?" Weiss asked guardedly, feeling her weapon's grip.

"I would've told you back there, but you have to see it for yourself." Blake answered enigmatically.

She retrieved her scroll, activating its flashlight and shining it out. The pane of light the device gave was blinding in comparison to the dim cave, and the other girls needed a moment to see whatever it was she was pointing at.

"Whats here that's so... so..." Ruby trailed off.

A black curved pillar was in view of the light; from what she could tell, it was roughly a meter wide. A large chevron shaped indentation was placed on the outer edge, the tip pointing inwards. In front of the indentation was a rectangle carving set inside of an inner line, with a strange glyph carved on she had never seen before. When Blake moved the light, it showed another small symbol, then another, curving up and over. Two more flashlights appeared, the others wanting to see the statue too. In the process the ground in front of the statue was lit up, showing them stone steps worn away close to oblivion.

It was a single massive ring, almost seven meters tall.

"Woah." Yang said softly, gawking. The one word reverberated off the walls, creating a disquieting echo effect.

Ruby tore her eyes off the statue, her gaze falling on Weiss. "Is it like the thing from your dream?"

"Exactly like it." she replied amazedly.

Yang approached the thing carefully, coming to a stop in front of one of the indentations. When she planted a hand on the surface, she frowned.

"This isn't rock. Feels a little like metal actually, not any kind I've ever seen before." she observed. Craning her neck up, she furrowed her brow in concentration. "Four, five, six..." she counted under her breath.

"There's thirty nine symbols etched on it. Eight of those little chevrons, maybe nine if there's one buried underneath. I counted them when I found it." Blake interrupted, earning a short scowl from the blonde.

Ruby was frowning too, albeit in puzzlement. She hadn't heard of anyone building something like this; the statue had to be a group effort, it was too large to be a one person creation. On the flip side, the cave looked well worn by time, showing no sign of any recent activity. Glancing at the ground, she saw paw marks and some scratches on the floor, yet the thing looked untouched.

It didn't make sense to her. If the statue was old, then the Grimm should have destroyed it a long time ago. If it were new, then there would have been evidence of it coming here. Human footprints at the very least, to say nothing of all the heavy equipment needed to bring it in here.

"I also found this." Blake said, interrupting her thoughts. Ruby looked over, seeing her ﬁx her scroll's light on something else, a few meters away from the ring.

"An altar." Yang guessed.

Weiss walked slowly over to it, keeping her own light on the thing. It was fairly large, topped by a slanted circle with a number of raised button like stones on it, each one had a glyph etched in place. After a few seconds she conﬁrmed the symbols were identical to the giant ring. In the center was a large red jewel bigger than her hand, smooth and spherical.

"What do you guys think?" Ruby asked, gazing around the large construct again. Weiss circled the altar, coming to a stop in front of the rows of symbols.

"Its old, that's for sure. No clue what its made of." Yang planted her hands on her hips, frowning at the ring.

"I'm thinking we should call this in." Blake opined, looking it over for anything she missed.

"Same here. Not what I was hoping we'd ﬁnd out here, but I suppose this is worth it." Ruby said, a hint of dejection in her tone.

"An archeological ﬁnd, neat I guess. Wonder who built it?" Yang asked idly, looking over the structure.

"Some long dead civilization is my bet. Personally, I'm wondering why. Someone went to a lot of effort to make this thing, and they stuck it way out here in a cave. And I've never seen any glyphs like these before." Blake added.

Yang shrugged. "Some egg-head can ﬁll us in. Right Weiss? Weiss?" she repeated when the white haired girl didn't respond at once. She turned around, slower than her sister and her friend.

Weiss was standing completely still, staring at the altar blankly. She ignored all of them, even as Blake discretely toed closer to her. The only movement she made was the shallow rise and fall of her chest.

Ruby gulped nervously. "Um, Weiss? You okay?"

One of Weiss's hands lifted up, for a moment hovering over the stone slab. Then the ﬂattened palm dropped onto a seemingly random symbol. The glyph she touched lit up, at the same time one of the chevrons moved. It clacked forward over a symbol, then retracted with a glow. The inner ring with all the glyphs began to creak, smoothly sliding.

Ruby jumped with a squeak, blinking away several meters as she yanked out Crescent Rose. Yang wasn't nearly as fast, but she had Ember Celicia at the ready facing the suddenly rotating ring. Blake stared numbly at the sight of the active object, snapping her head to Weiss. She was still blank faced, ﬁxated on the altar.

"Weiss, what did you do?" Blake demanded. Weiss didn't answer her, or gave any indication she even heard. Instead her hand darted over to another glyph, touching it and making the symbol light up with a strange ringing noise. Another chevron lit up, the grinding inner circle rotating to another position.

"Weiss, stop!" Ruby barked in alarm. She hit another glyph, then another, then another. Each one made another part of the ring glow, forming a circle. When she hit the sixth one Blake tackled her, trying to stop her friend's apparent madness. She was slow by just one second, enough time for the girl to slap the red crystal in the center.

The edges of the ring erupted into whitish blue light, in the blink of an eye it blossomed out into a cascade of glowing water. Ruby ﬁred off a shot in panic at the bloom of glowing water which reached out to them with a powerful 'kawoosh." The high powered round did nothing to stop the bloom coming for them.

Just as quickly as it appeared, the bloom drew back into the ring. Behaving like no water she had ever seen before, the stuff settling into a line within the circumference. The entire process took no more than a few seconds.

Under Blake's full weight Weiss blinked, shaking her head as the light returned to her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but once she saw the ring she was struck dumb. Just as they all were.

A surface of glowing water was now set in the ring, rippling to some unseen force. All around the cave there was a bluish light, hazily illuminating everything. Alone it made the few lights they brought along look inconsequential. Around the active statue the light was wavering just like it would be in water, patterns which would be mesmerizing if it weren't for the ninety degree puddle suspended in place.

Ruby was the ﬁrst to recover, realizing to her quiet embarrassment she had fallen down. Picking herself up, her silver eyes were glued on the glowing water blissfully hanging in place, distantly aware of the others also staring at the amazing sight.

"What the...?" Weiss murmured.

"What did you do?" Yang said breathlessly.

The heiress snapped her head to the blonde angrily. "What did I do?!"

"You touched the altar and made it do this." Blake said, unable to tear her eyes off of the sight as she rolled off the smaller girl.

"I... I did?" she asked confusedly.

"Oh don't tell me you don't remember." Yang said laconically.

"I don't! I remember just looking at it, next thing I know I'm on the ground and that, that _thing_ is there." Weiss snapped, gesturing angrily at the sight.

Yang rolled her eyes, taking her attention off the thing long enough to notice her sister slowly walking towards it. "Ruby, what are you doing?"

Cautiously the red toned girl walked up to the shimmering surface of the puddle, craning her neck up. She saw many things which were impossible to explain, such as the inner edges of the ring glowing slightly brighter than the water itself. Or that she couldn't see any part of the chamber behind the water. Hesitantly her hand came up to the wavering surface.

"Don't touch it." Blake snapped.

"Can you please get away from that thing?" Weiss insisted, her voice laden with worry.

Yang stomped to her, not fast enough to stop the girl's hand from brushing over the surface. She hesitated at the last second, seeing her sister's face showing an expression she hadn't seen in a long time: child-like wonder. Her own hand hung in midair, pausing midway towards grabbing her shoulder. Trailing her lilac eyes to the simmering puddle, she saw Ruby's hand gently dip in and out of the water, gently plying over the stuff. Curiously none of the liquid left the line, it passed right through her hand with no resistance.

"How does it feel?" she quietly asked.

"Its like water, but not. I can't feel anything on the other side though." she answered softly, ﬁnally dropping her hand from the strange stuff.

There was an electric crackle, and suddenly the entire puddle shorted out. The chamber was plunged into darkness, mitigated only by the tiny lights they brought along. They seemed insigniﬁcant compared to the sight which overwhelmed them.

Ruby turned back around, seeing the anxious expressions of Weiss and Blake in the dim light. An insane plan was forming in her mind, but for it to work, she needed to discover several factors. The most important was the reason for her next question. "Weiss, do you remember what buttons you touched?"

The blanching of all three of them was not unexpected.

"Have you lost your mind?!" her sister demanded incredulously, recoiling in shock.

"We have no idea what this thing is or what it does! for all we know its some kind of execution machine." Blake shot, stomping her foot on the ground.

"Why would someone go to all the effort of making this thing just to kill people?" Weiss spoke up as she got off the dirt. Ruby smiled at her, glad that she had one supporter.

"Call me crazy-" she began.

"You're crazy." Yang interrupted.

"-Crazy, but I think this is some kind of, I dunno, a gate." Ruby ﬁnished.

Blake frowned. "That's assuming a lot."

"Weiss, you said this thing is exactly like the thing from dream." the pale girl nodded. "What if this is what happened to JNPR? They found this thing, turned it on, and stepped through it to there?"

"One problem with that." Yang said, crossing her arms. "Lets assume for a second you're right. How come they never came back?"

"I think I have a idea for that." Blake offered, waiting until everyone to look to her before she lifted up her scroll. "In tech history, around forty years ago the predecessors to scrolls were small blocky machines, called mobiles. You didn't have a contact list, you had to manually type in the ID code for each device, they called it dialing the number. This went away with digitization. What if this thing works the same way?" she gestured to the altar. "All these symbols, they're numbers to get to wherever this thing leads."

"Tech history?" Yang asked.

"One of my electives. There's a problem with that line of thought however." Blake's tone darkened. "Say this is how it works. We dial this number and step through, then this thing closes down just like it did a minute ago. What's this gate's number?"

The color in Ruby's face drained away. "So, if it closes..."

"We'll be stuck on the other end." Weiss ﬁnished grimly.

"Exactly. Of course, its just a theory." Blake concluded.

Ruby turned back to the ring. Her features hardened at the sight, but on the inside her feelings were roiling. She knew her friends would leave soon, no more than a few weeks at the most. Her next decision could preempt that shattering, leaving her alone in her mission. All for something she knew nothing about.

By her side her ﬁsts clenched; she made her choice.

"Weiss, turn it back on." she commanded.

"Ruby..." Yang half pleaded.

"You and Blake are coming with me. Weiss, stay here and turn it back on in a half hour or so. We'll just scout around, then come back through. If we ﬁnd them, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Pyrrha, we'll bring them back. Even if we don't ﬁnd them, this is an amazing ﬁnd. Its a win-win, no matter what." she explained. Yang recognized her tone and knew that she was going to do this, no matter what.

"Alright." she sighed. By the altar, some kind of control mechanism, Blake made up her mind. Carefully she walked closer to the odd discovery, joining the siblings.

Weiss looked over the circular rows of symbols, no two exactly alike. When she lifted her hand to the surface however, she felt her intuition at work. Frowning, she hit the same glyph, or at least she hoped it was the same glyph, seeing it light up and the ﬁrst of the triangular chevrons clank forward. Ruby and Yang got out of the path the watery bloom came from; both girls had a feeling it wouldn't be wise to be in the path of the thing.

Finishing with the red crystal in the center, the cascade ballooned out as it did before. Without as much shock clouding her mind, Ruby was able to note how far the roaring water moved before it retracted, noting the bloom stopping at the edge of the worn steps. She was still scared, no matter how much she denied the fear. At last the bloom drew back to settle into the stable puddle which glowed so interestingly.

"If this doesn't work..." Blake muttered as she walked up to the sisters, both standing before the surface.

"It will." Ruby insisted, turning Crescent Rose to its rifle form. Yang still looked unconvinced, but she faced the puddle with Ember Celicia at the ready. Blake had Gambol Shroud out already, apprehensive at being so close to the shimmering surface. She alone heard the quiet breath of "I hope." leave the team leader's lips.

Ruby Rose squared up her shoulders, put her fears aside, and walked into the puddle.

00000

...

00000

 **A/N: Fixed, thanks BS Dude!**


	3. Meeting new People

Master Sergeant Walter Harriman liked his job. Granted, it wasn't exactly glamorous; ninety percent or better consisted of pressing keys and hitting a button or two, the remainder was making announcements concerning the alien device that was the focus of the program he worked for, the object he and his people simply called the Stargate.

Sure, he didn't go through the thing on a daily basis, off to look at rocks on a planet across the galaxy or ﬁghting the Goa'uld. What made him proud was knowing the operations SG teams embarked on, numbering twenty four last he checked, were his doing. He made the ring spin, he punched in addresses, and generally got everyone where they needed to go.

Today began relatively normally, as normal as the job tended to get anyway. That usually translated to boring, but he liked boring. Exciting things tended to kill people, and he had several clauses that prevented him from detailing the evidence that proved him right.

When an alarm began to blare, he idly thought that it wasn't unexpected to hear it, nor were the next words he had to say.

"Unscheduled off world activation." Walter urgently announced into the mic he kept close by, just for these events. As he was scanning over the stream of data pouring onto his console, another ﬁgure materialized behind him, one who tended to be nearby when things happened.

"Report." said the heavily accented texan twang of General George Hammond, leader of Stargate Command. Like most of the soldiers in Cheyenne Mountain, he thought of the thick and bald as _the_ General in charge. No one else ever managed to convey the authority the job demanded, nor did they ever command the level of respect from the men and women here as he did.

Just beyond the thick plexiglass of the control room, the Gate was locking the last of its chevrons in place. Once the connection was established there would have been a bloom of backwashed energy, but the the metal shield microns from the shimmering puddle blocked it from forming. Even as he watched, the twenty members of the gateroom security team were scrambling inside, weapons at the ready.

"Incoming wormhole, address has been identiﬁed. Its P3X-974." Walter duly reported. Hammond nodded thoughtfully.

"Cimmeria." he murmured before turning back to the man. "Open the Iris."

At his command the metal shield covering the Gate slid apart, retracting in on itself to reveal the glowing surface of an active wormhole. The water like portal suddenly spat out a single ﬁgure, a medium height humanoid. It looked like a blond bearded man in a leather tunic, with an iron axe strapped to his hip. The man blinked as he took in his surroundings; the enclosed room, lights everywhere, and dozens of weapons pointed right at him.

"Gate teams stand down." Hammond ordered, strolling away without checking to see if his command had been followed.

In the room itself, the man who looked like he just stepped out of a museum exhibit slowly walked down the ramp leading to the Stargate itself, uncertain at his surroundings. When Hammond entered through one of the two adjacent blast doors he ﬂicked his bearded visage to him, noticing the armed soldiers backing off in his presence. Behind the man an electric crackle sounded to announce the end of the open gate.

"Welcome to Earth." Hammond greeted perfunctorily, frowning in concern.

"Hello, I am Gunther. Are you Hammond?" the man asked.

"I am. What brings you to our world?" the General questioned.

"There are visitors that have come through the Gate. I was sent by Gairwyn for your assistance." Gunther replied with a nod.

"Very well. If you'll follow me." he gestured, turning away. Above in the control room Walter was already speaking out orders, getting the leaders of two awaiting teams to the brieﬁng room.

In a couple of minutes Gunther found himself in a gathering place, rcognizable as such no matter the decorations. Seconds after he and Hammond entered, two other men walked in, wearing similar yet different uniforms. One had the typical dark green jumpsuit many of the SG teams utilized, but the other had a green camouflaged one which was distinct from the splotched clothes the stone faced guards had. The latter wore a blue beret, the former had nothing. They both saluted the General before he gestured for them to take a seat at the enormous table.

"What seems to be the problem?" the second asked, his voice heavily accented. The man's name was Lieutenant Colonel Sergei 'Sokol' Kozak, leader of SG-22 and a visible representative of the Russian Federation's involvement in the Stargate program. The VDV Spetsnaz ofﬁcer and his team had been with them for a year now, distinguishing themselves as level headed professionals. He himself had a reputation for pranks, although no one had ever caught him in the act.

"One of our allies have a situation on their hands. Would you please?" Hammond invited to the man. Gunther took a deep breath, reminding himself he was on an alien planet far away from home. Mumbling a quick prayer to Thor he spoke to the two men.

"Earlier today four travelers came through the Stargate." he began.

"Not good." murmured the ﬁrst man, Air Force Major John Smith, commander of SG-7. He was well known as something of a hardass, curt yet fair to his team and others. Normally he and his men were an exploration team, but as of late they were relegated to a transportation role. Despite the misuse of talent he never let it bother him. Their work helped protect Earth, that was enough for him.

"They claimed to be students. That was their ﬁrst time stepping through the ring, they barely knew how it worked. One of them tried to go back through the way they came, but Hjord, my friend, he stopped the girl. They didn't even know their home address." Gunther went on.

"Do they now?" Hammond questioned sharply.

"Yes. He told them which symbols will get them home when their last friend dialed. They should be able to ﬁnd their way home no matter where they go now." the heavyset general breathed an imperceptible sigh of relief. "We can't let them stay there, but they seemed like the kind of people you look for."

"Details about them?" Colonel Sokol asked.

"Four teenagers, all girls. They were armed, but they seemed friendly. They also said they were looking for friends of theirs that traveled through their gate some time ago." Gunther answered.

"Their friends could be anywhere in the galaxy." Sokol pointed out.

"Hjord told them, they didn't mind." he replied.

"Very well." Hammond stated. "Mister Gunther, I'm sending you back with one of our SG teams. They'll get this sorted out. Which one of you wants the mission?" he directed to the two men.

Sokol shook his head. "I have a contact mission to a reclusive tribe on P4X-7227. They're derived from the Maori people, been hunted by the Goa'uld for centuries. It would not be wise to abandon them at this point." he explained regretfully.

"There's an archeological dig on P2X-907 that needed a supply run." Major Smith answered ﬂatly.

"Alright. Colonel, your mission is still on as planned. Major, your assignment will be handed off to SG-13. You are to accompany Gunther back to Cimmeria, make provisional contact with these students, and see to it that they return home safely. SG-9 will be sent to establish formal relations with their world when you report back. Dismissed."

Minutes later Major Smith was at the armory, walking in to see the four troops he commanded getting ready for the workday. A lieutenant, a senior airman, and two airmen comprised the small unit he was responsible for. The second they noticed him they stopped and went to attention, giving quick salutes. Smith noticed a styrofoam coffee cup by the youngest member of his team with displeasure.

"At ease. Change of plans gentlemen, our supply run is scrubbed. We're going to P3X-974." he told them, making his way to a bench laden with equipment.

"An attack sir?" one of the airmen asked worriedly.

"Negative. Four lost students by the sound of it, out of all places they could've stumbled on to they ended up on an Asgard planet." he shook his head at the odds. "We're making contact and keeping in touch with their people until the diplomats get to work." he explained, suiting up like they did.

"Should be easy." the senior airman commented, taking a swig of the drink. He noticed his commander's disapproving look and lowered the cup quickly.

"You shouldn't be drinking that much coffee. What if there was an emergency and you got into combat?" Smith lectured.

"Then afterwards you can make fun of me for wetting my pants sir." the senior airman replied without missing a beat. The lieutenant, a heavily built man by the name of Barnes, didn't react. The two airmen almost snickered, but a harsh look by the Major stopped it from happening.

"I'll hold you to that. One more thing, grab Zats for your sidearms." he commanded to them. The alien made weapons were fantastic for dealing with any hostile that they weren't permitted to kill, and he felt like being prepared.

Barnes loaded a magazine into an M16, thanks to the scope and his own marksmanship he was skilled at sharpshooting. Smith armed himself with a P90 slung around his torso, a holstered Zat'nik'tel on his hip, and a couple of grenades; in other words the usual setup. The enlisted men were geared up like he was, the equipment usually brought along for exploration missions. Once he was done with himself, Smith waited for the rest of them to ﬁnish, seeing satisfactorily it only took a few more seconds to get around.

So armed, equipped fully, and clad in the uniforms offworld gate teams used (complete with a mix of helmets and infantry caps), he ordered, "Move out."

00000

...

00000

Sizzling fat dripped into the open ﬁre, creating a constant patter of burning ﬂesh which ﬁlled the home, really a sturdy hut, with an appetizing odor. The beefy woman who introduced herself as Hilda held a wooden plate underneath the roasting slab, using a dull knife to cut slabs off the spit roasted meat onto a wooden plate. When a suitable quantity was retrieved, she strode deceptively fast to her four guests, gently putting the plate in front of the last of her visitors.

Weiss stared at the plate with an odd blend of revulsion and surprise. She was certain the hunk of unidentiﬁable meat on front of her could pass a health inspection for dogs, mostly sure in any case.

"Eat up please." the cheerful woman invited, looking to be in her forties but could easily be far younger.

"Um, thank you." Ruby said quickly, the last in the line of four girls sitting at the table. A window was propped open, letting fresh air in to stop the pungent smell of the food from overpowering them.

She looked at her own plate with some apprehension, but manners demanded she try tasting the stuff, whatever it was. Blake had a knife in hand, another dull iron one simpler than an apprentice blacksmith back home could make, poking the meat in front of her. Yang grabbed her chunk with her bare hands, wincing a bit at the heat as she lifted it up. Weiss was staring at the meal, reluctantly picking up her own utensils.

Strange to say, the laughably unhygienic home cooked food in front of them had been the least amazing thing today.

The moment she stepped out the other end of the ring, Ruby knew something extraordinary had happened. Her proof was gained by the simple act of looking up. The slightly overcast sky had two circular bodies placed in it, neither of which had anything in common whatsoever to the shattered moon. The one detail she had known as fact since she was old enough to understand astronomy, and it was gone. Yang and Blake had been similarly dumbstruck.

Not that the parade of amazing things stopped there. A moment after they stepped through, an artfully carved obelisk situated a few meters from the ring spewed out white light over the trio, lasting a few heart stopping seconds before it vanished. Then a man had appeared, apparently he'd seen the display of the active ring and came to investigate. His name turned out to be Hjord, and he had been another set of surprises all on his own.

Dirty, somewhat unkept, and clad in clothes and weapons which hadn't seen real use in Remnant for hundreds of years described the man. After talking to him, Ruby found out he had never heard of Remnant, or the Four Kingdoms, or most amazingly, the Grimm. As a ﬁnishing blow, the red huntress tried to get a feel for his Aura, only to ﬁnd out it was pathetically weak. It was bizarre to see grown man with a soul which was outdone by hers when she was a toddler, but there he was.

Despite the poor state he lived in, Hjord proved to be quite knowledgeable about the ring, calling it a Stargate (a short consensus with her friends decided it was a good name for the thing). Enough to helpfully tell them which glyphs in what order they needed to hit, so to return to their own world when Weiss dialed again from their end. He even stopped Yang from going back through, claiming it was strictly one way when one gate called another. A couple of tests conﬁrmed it; their scrolls could call through their end albeit with weak signal, but a few rocks they tossed through didn't make it to Weiss's end.

After it closed again Ruby tried the buttons on an altar which was an exact replica of the one back home, and once the dreadful bloom had retracted, they successfully got a call back to the heiress. When Weiss came through some time later, she was met by the same light as they were, to the same result. After a simple explanation and an urgent word with a senior leader from the nearby village, Team RWBY found themselves in the home of a local woman named Hilda, getting a meal made for them.

"Here goes." Yang murmured, lifting the meat to her lips. All three girls watched nervously when she bit down on the meat, taking a piece into her mouth. She blinked, gulping down the small chunk quickly. "This is good."

"Really?" Blake asked, taking a careful bite herself. Her bow ﬂicked, unmindful of the human that watched them eat with satisfaction.

Taking the plunge, Ruby cut a small piece off and put it in her mouth. She paused; the taste was extraordinary, a mixture of smoked game with things she couldn't begin to identify. A mental note was made to take some of this meat back to Remnant with them.

Weiss was the last, gingerly reaching out to take a bite. Cringing at the thought of the stuff giving her food poisoning, she let a tiny piece touch her tongue. Immediately she too blinked, the remains of her haughty upbringing swatted aside.

"You're right." she agreed, stunned.

Yang was busy tearing into her meat, keeping enough manners to prevent doing an impression of a toddler. The others were far more subdued, though they still showed plenty of enthusiasm. Hilda beamed, waiting until they were done eating to speak.

"So, what'd you think?" she asked slyly.

"That was perhaps the best meal I've had all year, thanks." Yang said appreciably. Ruby nodded with a grin, noting as well the approving looks on her friends.

"No problem. For friendly visitors from another world its the least I could do, and since my sons left I haven't had much else to do around here." she answered easily.

Blake was the ﬁrst one to pick up on the statement, though not by much of a lead. "Do you guys get visitors often?"

The thick woman nodded. "For the longest time it was around once or twice a generation. Demons and their servants would come to our world, then Thor would whisk them away. Nowadays there's more, most of them are Tau'ri."

"Taw-ree?" Yang repeated, raising a brow.

"Not to sound rude, but could you please explain everything you just said?" Weiss asked carefully. Blake and Ruby nodded in agreement.

"Of course. Before I do though, would you like some more Greatmaw?" she offered. All four girls extended their plates out, making the woman laugh. A few minutes later and a fresh helping of the delicious meat was being devoured by the visitors. "Good isn't it?"

"Yep. You said this was called Greatmaw?" Ruby asked, digging in once more.

"That's right. Its a vicious predator that lives up in the mountains. Every so often one would prowl down here to take our livestock, so the men have to hunt it down. Good thing it's meat tastes great." she explained with a small chuckle.

"I'd love to try bagging one myself." Yang said enthusiastically.

"I'm sure you would. Olaf got the last one, maybe later you can stop by his home to see its pelt. Those cats are dangerous, but it seems like you could succeed." Hilda offered.

Ruby was lifting another piece to her mouth when she heard that. She stopped midway, mouth agape in preparation of eating when she rotated her eyes to the woman.

"Did... you just say cat?" she asked slowly.

"Yep. Big and nasty, two or three times the size of a man." Hilda answered. Ruby glanced at the food, giving it a scrutinizing look before peering back at the woman and pointing a ﬁnger at the meat.

"This is cat." she repeated.

"Yes. Is there something wrong?" Hilda asked, frowning in puzzlement.

All three girls turned their heads to the end of the table, where a now frozen Blake was sitting. The cat faunus cheeks were bulging a little from the last bite of the feline meat she took. Slowly she gulped down the piece, all of her enjoyment seeping away. Then she dropped her food back on the plate and pushed it away.

"Not hungry." she said quickly.

"Me neither." Weiss did the same.

"Nope." Yang followed suit. Ruby said nothing, pushing her plate away with a guilty expression and noting that Blake looked ill all of a sudden. Hilda watched them with confusion.

"What? What's the matter?" she asked, befuddled.

"So." Weiss began as she brought her hands together on the table surface, determined to move on from the unintentional surprise. "Could you tell us about the demons? And Thor too."

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The Cimmerian Stargate activated, the kawoosh spreading out before retracting in on itself. Moments after the wormhole was established Major Smith strode through ﬁrst, a wary Gunther a few steps behind him. The rest of his team ﬁled through the ancient device in short order, none of them looking phased by the travel. Once the last of them were through it shut down.

That done, the old machine known as Thor's Hammer did the same thing it did for all travelers who came to this world: scanned them for the signature of a particular type of creature. Major Smith waited patiently; the techs back on Earth claimed hostile actions wouldn't trigger the alien device, but just in case he kept still. Even if it did however, the only real consequence in store for him was an hour long walk back.

Once the scan was completed Smith looked to Gunther.

"Lead on please." he said curtly.

"This way." the native said, taking point for the commandos.

One of the airmen, a dark skinned man named Walsch, noticed the senior airman scanning the faraway tree line intently.

"Dude, why do you do that on every world we go to?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"Force of habit." he answered blandly. The other airman, called Roy, snorted at the young man's antics.

The village closest to the Gate was only a half kilometer away, nothing resembling a problem for these men. Or would be normally, until the senior airman tore his eyes off the trees to quietly sigh. He knew already his request was not going to go over well with the Major.

"Sir, I think you were right about the coffee." he announced.

Major Smith's pace didn't change, he only sighed. "How bad."

"Don't think I'll last until we get back to Earth." he answered. At that Walsch and Roy snickered, while Barnes snorted in derision.

"Gunther, where are the visitors located?" Smith asked the local with a turn of his head.

"Last I checked at Hilda's home. You'll see when we get there." he replied, jerking a hand towards the village.

"You get that?" Major Smith didn't look back, because it wasn't a question.

"Understood sir. Five minutes?" the airman asked.

"Five minutes. If you're not at the village when the times up you're getting Zatted and tossed back to Earth. Clocks ticking." he said neutrally. The senior airman broke off from the group, not showing much of a hurry.

Smith wasn't serious about the threat; the worst the kid was in for was a tongue lashing. Discipline at the SGC tended to be looser than what he was accustomed to back on his special operations days, not that he could really blame them for it. They quite literally had the weight of the world on their shoulders, a few infractions here or there wasn't something to get worked up over. Still, there were a few things he didn't let slide.

Barnes moved closer to Smith for a quiet word. "Was that necessary sir?"

"Just some motivation. He'll be there before times up." he replied easily.

"Alright then sir. Don't want him to repeat your incident in Beirut?" Barnes half joked.

"An incident that never happened." Smith insisted with a tiny chuckle. Gunther spared a look at the two men, blankly wondering what they were talking about.

Meanwhile the young man choose a random tree, moving his P90 out of the way to get to his zipper. In a few seconds he let out a quiet sigh while he relieved himself.

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"So." Ruby said, wrapping her head around the odd explanation Hilda gave them. "The evil gods called the System Lords rule over most of the stars, conquering and enslaving any world they come across. Except for a few like here, which are protected by the good gods, the Asgard. The one that guards this world, Thor, teaches you to stand on your own two feet and live strongly and justly." she recounted carefully.

"Thats most of it." Hilda answered, unsmiling. It sounded like mythology, yet she spoke of it with what strongly resembled personal experience.

"And one called Heru'ur tried taking over this place ﬁve years ago, until Thor himself swept them away." Blake said. She nodded again, this time a frown creased her features.

"A party of his warrior slaves raided my hamlet then. I lost friends and my father to those brutes." she shook her head to clear the memories away, something they could all understand.

"Its okay. We've lost friends too, not to the demons I admit, but to monsters." Yang consoled.

Hilda sighed. "Its alright. Thor dealt with them but it was the Tau'ri that called him here." she said, forcing some cheer into her voice.

"I've been meaning to ask, who are these Tau'ri?" Weiss asked quizzically.

"They're people like you or me who ﬁght against these evil gods by traveling through the gate. So far, despite losses they've been winning. Thor himself holds them in high esteem. They visit here every now and again, but they don't stay for long." Hilda said, turning to check on the cooling meat over the ﬁre.

Yang took the chance to lean in close to Blake to whisper. "You buying any of this?"

"We're on an alien world who knows where with primitive people and apparently no Grimm, after walking through another alien machine that teleported us here. I don't think there's much I won't believe at this point." she whispered back.

"They travel through that thing a lot?" Ruby inquired, her silver eyes brightening.

"Oh yes. They've been to many places, even to other worlds that the Asgard protect." she answered easily, going to a large kettle filled with their dirty dishes. Ruby turned to her friends, guessing that they knew what was running through her mind.

"How can we get in touch with these Tau'ri?" she asked, her excitement barely masked.

"They're on the way here. Gunther went to their world for their help. I'm sorry to say you can't stay, and these friends you're looking for aren't here." Hilda said with some regret.

"Its okay. You've been a great host." Blake complimented, noting a shift in her expression when she said the last word.

"If anyone can help you, its them." Hilda replied evenly, brightening up after a shake of her head. "The Tau'ri are strange folk, but they are friends to many."

Shouting from outside caught their attention. It sounded like a child yelling something, and reflexively all four students felt for their weapons. After several seconds one by one stopped themselves, being reminded of their location. Hilda's chuckle laid most of the girls's instincts to rest. "That's just Herrod. He always does that when the Tau'ri come."

"Thats our cue then. Miss Hilda, thanks again for the food." Ruby said, pushing herself up ahead of the others.

"You're welcome here any time." Hilda replied with a little wave. Giving a small smile to her ﬁrst, Ruby turned to the wooden door with Crescent Rose slung over her back. Weiss, Blake, and Yang had their weapons close by, in case something bad happened. Once she conﬁrmed they were ready, she pushed the door open to step out into the light of another world.

Her timing was unintentionally perfect. Her team was out into the small village of some hundred or so people, seeing many pairs of eyes fall on their very outlandish appearance. Moments after stepping outside, another group of people came around the corner of a home. Ruby saw the eyes go to the new arrivals, noticing a range of emotions; some indifference, some hatred, but a large amount of elation.

Ruby realized quickly these men were soldiers. It wasn't just their equipment or uniforms which gave them away, although those were telling enough; matching dark green jumpsuits, black boots, and vests covered in equipment, none of it recognizable. They had compact guns, types she'd never seen before held low yet able to be brought up quickly. The way they carried themselves told her what they were more than anything else. Their postures were relaxed, yet their eyes were guarded, ready to spring into action at once. Only soldiers and experienced Huntsmen had that kind of body language, and she doubted they killed Grimm for a living.

The leader of the men, a tall man with an odd flat cap on his head, strode up to the students. He gave them an uninterested look before speaking, evidently not phased by their clothes or the weapons they carried.

"Greetings. I'll assume you're the visitors here?" he asked grufﬂy.

"Yeah." Ruby replied, trying not to appear intimidated. It was hard, since he was more than a head taller than she was.

"Great. I'm Major John Smith, of Earth. You've probably heard us being called Tau'ri." he explained simply. She nodded carefully.

"I'm Ruby Rose. Of Remnant. These are my friends." she added as an afterthought. He nodded, a slight frown coming over his features. It passed and he shook his head.

"Ma'am, pardon my bluntness, but I'm going to have to ask you and your companions to accompany me back to the Stargate." he said. Unbeknownst to her, the name was stirring a memory he couldn't quite grasp.

"Alright." Ruby said, wary around him. Unlike the other people here, she was getting no friendly impression from him.

Hilda stood in the doorway of her house, giving the four a smile. "Safe travels." she called out.

Yang smiled and waved back at her, weak ﬂutters coming from her friends. Major Smith gave a lackluster salute before turning away, leading the girls off. His men followed him, the man with a gun far larger than the others tailing them all. A few of the villagers waved and said farewells, which the mixed group returned with varying levels of enthusiasm.

On the edge of the village Major Smith said, "Roy, time?" to Ruby's confusion. He noticed her questioning look and explained.

"One of my men had to take care of a personal matter, too much coffee. Roy?" he repeated. Blake turned her head in the direction of the forest ﬁrst, frowning.

"Thirty seconds-scratch that sir." one of the men answered. The rest of them heard it next, footsteps on soft dirt coming towards them. They regrouped with the lone soldier just as they cleared the corner of a building. The senior airman was adjusting his own cap in place when he fell into step with the team, glancing at the girls as Ruby looked him over.

Then he stopped, at the same time the leader did.

That simple action brought the party of nine to a complete standstill, as one by one the Remnant natives all glanced at the young blond man, and one by one they were overcome by surprise. The shock on the airman's and Ruby's respective faces was identical.

" _Ruby_!?"

" _Jaune_!?"

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 **A/N: I was going to wait longer on this, since I have nothing else written at present. Oh well. To everyone that put a follow on this, jesus! Thanks a bunch, I mean it.**


	4. How we got here

**A/N: a shoutout for scouttroop, whom I broke my agreement with. Sorry dude, hope this can make up for it, even if only a little bit.**

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A short distance away from the village was where they decided to stop, sitting down on a clear patch of grass. Neither the Cimmerians nor Major Smith got close to the five, the former because of long standing social conventions which claimed a reunion needed space, the latter because of quiet embarrassment at the unexpected encounter. All he did was say "Hold your position" before marching his men off, presumably back to the Stargate.

"I... uh... wow." Jaune dropped his head and shook it, his messy blonde hair tumbling with the action. One hand held his hat, the other grasped air. It had to, Ruby had his arm in a death grip.

"I dunno what to say." Weiss couldn't believe her eyes.

"No kidding." Yang agreed, dumbstruck.

"Me neither." Blake added, thus far the clearest headed of the team.

Ruby said nothing, she was too wrapped up in her glee. She was happy-no, _ecstatic_.

Jaune Arc. Youngest of eight children. Huntsman in training. Leader of team JNPR. Missing and declared dead. A name on a list of fallen students in the bowels of the academy. Her friend. He was in her grip, warm and breathing and _alive_. It was a fact she had doubts about, no matter how much she denied it even to herself. Ruby didn't try to restrain her emotions, not now. Perhaps she was being selfish, but this was the first true joy she had experienced in a long time, she didn't want to ruin the moment.

But there were details trying to undermine her happiness, things which could not be denied. It wasn't the physical differences; Ruby knew she was trusting and a tad naive, but she was no fool. Three years was a long time, any dunce could tell such a span changed people. It was a given he or his team wouldn't be exactly like what she remembered. What was disquieting her was how much he changed.

At a glance, he wasn't too removed from the last time she saw him. He was taller for certain, roughly eye level with Yang at this point. His features had a more defined edge to them, maturity shaving away the smoothness youth had. Beyond this he was still mostly the same, down to his messy blond hair and a wide smile.

Jaune took a deep breath. "Alright, I guess I'll get to the obvious. How did you guys get here?"

Blake and Yang shared an uncertain look, turning to a bashful Weiss. Under their gazes was bad enough; factoring in a pair of blue eyes she never expected to see again, and she was rapidly falling into embarrassment.

"I… um… you wouldn't believe me if I told you." she said quickly. The pale girl had no idea what to expect, least of all a small chuckle from a boy who once hit on her every chance he got.

"Try me." Jaune offered.

Several things about him were different, and they were making Ruby uneasy. The first and perhaps most glaring detail were his clothes: Jaune was wearing a dark green jumpsuit; from the feel in her grip, it was made of a coarse fabric she had never encountered before. On his feet were a pair of black boots, simple and utilitarian. A pair of fingerless gloves covered his hands, made of stiffer material than the rest of the outfit. Covering his torso was a vest, colored black. It had numerous pockets, many filled with unidentifiable equipment. The hat he wore at first was on the ground well away from her grasp, but she had little doubt it was like the rest of his outfit.

Then there was a patch on the shoulder of the arm she claimed, stitched fabric showing a blue circle with the same symbols on the gate. In the center was a pyramid shape, with a dot at the tip. A badge of some kind.

"Well, how about you? How did you get here?" Yang stepped in. Jaune flicked his head her way, idly squirming his arm in the girl's hold.

Ruby's old hobby (what some called obsession) drew her gaze to his weapons, there were no mistaking those. Besides a small knife on his belt, there was a weird hand sized weapon inside of a hip holster. It looked like a carved shape of bluish metal, split into three sections with a snake shape poking out the top. What grabbed the majority of her attention however was the gun hanging off a chest strap. It was a small rectangle, appearing to be made of plastic and metal. What looked like sights were on the upper portion, and a pair of circular grips were placed on the opposite side. For some reason, she felt ill at ease just by looking at the weapon; it was simple, unadorned, and impersonal. No sense of familiarity or private care left the gun. It was... cold.

Her inspecting was cut short when a small block on his chest crackled. His head snapped to it in muted alarm, then he glanced back at the girl while all but cringing.

"Ruby, I missed you too, but I please have my arm back? I need to take this." he half pleaded.

The red toned girl frowned, for a moment actually tightening her grip. But in the end she let go, allowing the captured limb to pull away from her. He winced while he flexed his arm, getting blood flowing back before he went to the machine on his torso. A quick tap and the block crackled to life, like an old radio.

"This is Arc." Jaune said in a clipped tone. Ruby blinked; the second he touched the device his entire demeanor shifted.

" _About time._ " answered the gruff voice from the other end. Even heavily distorted by static, she could tell it was Major Smith.

"Just catching up sir." Jaune replied.

" _Wonderful. Anyway, just dialed back to Earth. We're moving out, you are to hold your position for thirty minutes, then bring the... travelers... back with you_."

"Copy."

" _I don't need to give you the whole 'take care' speech do I?_ "

Jaune huffed, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "No sir. See you in half an hour."

" _Good. Smith out._ "

Jaune tapped the radio once more, looking back to his friends with his expression returning to the friendly state they all fondly remembered. Disquieted looks met him instead.

"What just happened?" Yang asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That? My team is heading back to Earth. Hope you guys don't mind, but we're heading there next." Jaune explained, bringing up the arm the girl clutched to glance at his wrist. A tiny watch was placed there, once he checked the time the hand dropped again. This time Ruby didn't grab it.

Blake raised an eyebrow. "Team?"

"SG-7. I've been assigned to them for a while now." he elaborated.

"What happened to the others?" Ruby pressed, jerking closer to him but not touching.

He looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. "Would have loved to stay with them, but orders are orders." he shrugged off with a weak smile.

The pieces fell in place, and Weiss's mind clicked.

"Y-you're a soldier." she stated flatly, uncomfortable surprise making her wince. The proof was right in front of her, she didn't understand the picture until now. It rippled around the girls, the feeling going to each in turn.

Jaune opened his mouth, but after a second he closed it and sighed. "Yeah. I am." he said quietly, dropping his head.

"How did this happen?" Blake questioned sharply.

"No offense Jaune, but I never had you pegged for the military type." Yang added, roaming her eyes over him.

He sighed again. "A few years ago I would've agreed with you, but things change."

Ruby stared at him, a frown beginning to crease her features. "How did you get like this?"

Jaune took a deep breath, and spoke.

 _Forever fall, three years earlier..._

Jaune Arc took a deep breath, steadying his nerves. He tracked the Beowolf carefully, watching it circle him. This one was large, hinting towards a great age. For a moment he contemplated attacking first; in the grueling training sessions, his new teacher had hammered in the need then move on to the next. But he held still instead, matching the Beowolf. This one was more like the usual brand of Grimm he was familiar with these days rather than the weird berserkers they'd encountered this morning, wary yet cunning. He could only guess how many huntsmen died at its claws. His gut told him a direct attack was a bad idea, which was fine with him. He wasn't supposed to kill this one on his own anyway.

Teamwork payed dividends after all.

Without warning a green blur rushed behind the Beowolf, and two sharp blades pierced its back. The Grimm roared, swiping its massive paws around in an attempt to get the attacker off its back. He didn't oblige, tearing one of his weapons out only to stab in a different location. His face was slightly contorted in effort, making sure it went down. Once the Grimm was good and distracted Jaune rushed it, blocking an errant blow and slashing upwards. The arm was taken clean off, and with it came a fresh roar, reminding him of a scream. He didn't let the thought distract him, putting his attention on the task at hand.

Attack, parry, block, it was a simple yet all encompassing series of actions which had only two real results, his death, or its. This time, its death was assured. Crocea Mors punctured through the thin part of the hide on its neck, severing everything keeping the creature alive, or in the state that counted as alive for Grimm. Another roar was abruptly cut off, the red eyes of the Beowolf ceasing to glow. Jaune yanked his sword out, backing away so when it dissolved into ash none of it was breathed in.

Taking another deep breath, Jaune glanced to his friend and teammate with an easy, "Thanks."

Lie Ren nodded in acknowledgment, as he was wont to do. The student wore his usual garb, the green long sleeved shirt artfully designed compared to Jaune's hoodie. His pants were the same way, a white color to his blue. His weapons, a pair of bladed handguns he called Stormflower, were kept out for the time being, instead of being drawn back into his voluminous sleeves. His purple eyes glanced around the clearing a pack of Grimm tried to ambush them in, slightly faster than his leader. There wasn't many to begin with, perhaps no more than twenty. The number was effectively no problem to team JNPR, as a single glance from them could tell.

Another Beowolf was attempting to attack one of them, only to be met by a large hammer and a cry of joy. A girl the boys's age with short orange hair and rosy cheeks to go with a beaming countenance whipped her white and pink hammer Magnhild around, hitting the Grimm hard enough to take its head off. The jacket and skirt wearing girl let off a whoop of victory before yanking herself around, the weapon collapsing into its second mode: a grenade launcher. Nora Valkryie was her name, to which the monikers bubbly, cheerful, and violent applied in equal measure.

There was one more Grimm, an Ursa, which neither of the boys made a move to deal with. The reason being the last member of the team already had it taken care of, as Nora was just finding out.

The bear roared, the booming sound cut out mid cry from the point of a bronze toned javelin punching through the bottom of its jaw. Its owner waited until the Ursa dissolved into ash before she flipped it away, shaking the remains away from her javelin and shield. She strode through the spot where the monster was a moment ago, surveying the rest of her team.

Pyrrha Nikos. Long red hair, toned skin, green eyes, and and excellent figure described her body, bronze armor with a circular headpiece to go with a red sash around her waist described her outfit. As she rejoined the team, her head swept around them, checking them over just as Jaune had done.

"Everyone good?" Jaune called out, seeing them regroup.

"I'm fine." Pyrrha answered easily.

"Ended just when it was getting good." Nora said unhappily.

"Okay, I think we can cross morning work out off of our to do list." he half joked. Nora giggled, Ren made a small grin, while Pyrrha smiled in the way he tried very hard not to think about, the way which could and did distract him from what mattered. Maybe later he could think about it, but for now there were things to do.

"Lets check over the camp, Oobleck is going to mark us for that." he said, being the first to start heading for their 'camp', really just some sleeping bags with a few boxed supplies and a campfire.

Nevertheless he counted on it being graded for safety, since Bartholomew Oobleck was going to be extra scrutinizing when he arrived in the evening. The teacher who sent them on the surprise assignment was not his usual self; instead of being a hyperactive motormouth, he was dragging himself along and mumbling half of his words. He claimed his coffee machine was broken, an odd excuse if Jaune ever heard one. It was highly unlikely he would be in the same state when he returned however, hence the need to be punctilious. Privately he wondered if the scatterbrained professor would be there when the sun set, since he doubted they were dropped in the right place.

At first glance, the camp wasn't harmed badly. There was a tear in Nora's sleeping bag from a Beowolf stomping through, and one of the monsters trashed through the fire pit Ren made earlier. It was superficial damage though. The pack was too fixated on the students to care about the stuff they brought along. Jaune quietly sighed to himself, in relief instead of the disappointment he expected. He made a mental note to offer the orange haired girl his bag when she saw the damage.

"Did anyone notice something off about the Grimm there?" Pyrrha asked, snapping him back to the present.

"They attacked without putting thought into their actions." Ren noted calmly.

"Now that you mention it..." Nora trailed off in thought. Her wondering came to an abrupt halt when she saw the state of her sleeping bag.

"Its alright. You can use mine tonight if you want." Jaune offered, seeing frown not quite enough to count as a pout. He offered a small smile and turned back to the camp, putting together a list of what had to be done.

From the distance came the faint bellow of a horn. Pyrrha was the first to snap her head to its direction, the others following suit a moment later.

"What was that?" Nora asked.

"Someone's in trouble." Ren said firmly.

Jaune sighed again, unsheathing his sword once more. "Well, what're we waiting for?"

They took off in a run, eating up the ground in the direction of the sound quickly. Not to the extent of their endurance; they needed to keep together, and it wouldn't be good to arrive to a fight exhausted. Over the rough wild ground they jogged, hearing another bellow from the horn. This time it was much closer, allowing them to home in on the location with ease. With Nora leading with her hammer ready, they were as prepared as could be.

Privately however, Jaune was feeling concern. Beacon was the closest settlement to this area, yet it was distant enough to need an old airbus to get there in a timely manner. Whoever was out there was far away from any form of safety. It pointed to one of two options: either they were another team who needed help, or it was illegal activity encountering more Grimm than anticipated. While he ran he yanked out his scroll to check for any nearby student IDs; the only ones for several kilometers were his friends.

A third bellow began tantalizingly close, only to be cut off after a moment. Jaune heard a faint scream before he crested a small hill, and saw what was there.

His guts clenched in anger; the three Beowolves (only three?) were around the fallen bodies of a group of half dozen armored humans. Bodies which were torn apart, mauled by vicious claws. Jaune didn't think, he charged in ahead to avenge the dead. The rest of his team was on his heels, unwilling to let the monsters get away with what they had done.

Blocking a swipe, he beheaded the first Beowolf easily, turning to the next in short order. To his disappointment, they were already dead at his team's hands. A single throw of Pyrrha's treasured weapon impaled one through the chest and piercing its heart, killing it instantly. Nora parried another swipe and swung the business end of her hammer around, hitting it hard enough to send it flying, where a quick burst from Ren finished it off.

Jaune went to the closest of the dead once he was sure the Grimm were dealt with, his expression severe. Kneeling over the man's body, he saw how he was attacked, deep gashes no one could survive. Clenching his fist, he gritted his teeth in anger. He was furious at the Grimm for this, but he was more upset at himself. Logically, he knew they did the best they could under the circumstances. It did nothing to change how he felt.

Pyrrha knelt over the same man as he was, frowning. "This is strange."

"Yeah. Who uses spears like these? No blades at all, and these little clubs couldn't hurt a fly." Nora tapped a discarded staff with her foot, averting her gaze from the bodies.

As Jaune took a deep breath to clear his head, he began to notice details about the half dozen men which puzzled him. Running a hand over the man's armor, he felt the artfully designed yet simplistic iron plate and chain mail. The segmented armor covered most of his body, all save for his head which had a form fitting plate covering his bare scalp. Such armor would work as training gear or town patrol equipment, but not for the deep woods.

Jaune frowned when he noticed a tattoo right above the man's brow, a mark the size of his thumb. The Beowolf's gash had somehow missed it, letting him examine the dark glyph in detail. He wracked his brain for something similar to the mark, but he couldn't think of anything which matched. Out of curiosity he moved to the next corpse, a man which was actually quite large now that he was relatively clear headed, even after what the Grimm did to the body. The same symbol was above his eyes as well.

"They all have the same equipment. And these marks." Ren noted, going to each of the men in turn.

"I haven't seen anything like this before." Pyrrha added.

Jaune stood up, frowning in thought. "Lets call the professor. Even if these guys are just some thugs, we shouldn't just leave them-"

Another horn bellowed, this one close by.

"Never mind, lets go." he said quickly, being the first to take off. Tending to the dead was important, but saving the living was better.

However, his exertions were beginning to catch up to him. A painful stitch formed in his side, and his breath became more ragged. A glance at his team showed them in similar condition, with Ren in particular flushed and panting. An intense fight followed by a sprint may not have been too taxing alone, but with yet another desperate run to what was likely going to be a two sided fight, he was getting close to his limit. He knew they had to be careful next.

Several hundred meters away, he spotted another man, wearing the same armor as the dead behind them. This one was running for his life with an Ursa on his heels. A staff like what the others had was clutched in hand while he ran, why he didn't try to use it was a mystery on its lonesome. Along the rocky path he was running on were a small series of caves, possibly dens for more Grimm.

Jaune didn't need to say anything. Nora took this one, via a leap ending in a powerful downwards swing at the Ursa's back. It collapsed with a snarl, which thanks to a well aimed blow from Pyrrha it was cut off at once. He stopped to catch his breath, spotting the others pausing alongside him. But not the armored man, he seemingly didn't notice his saviors.

"Hey!" Jaune mustered the energy to yell, but the man ignored him to dart inside a cave.

Groaning and out of breath, the blond dropped down with his hands on his hips, heaving for breath. His sword felt oddly heavy now, a fact he did his best to ignore.

"Least he could do was thank us." Pyrrha said with a small frown.

"Rude." Nora commented sourly.

Ren was in worse shape than Jaune, his endurance being the worst among the team often biting him like this. He retained enough sense to glance around the area for any more enemies, unlike his offended friends. When he turned his head around he froze, his purple eyes going wide.

"Uh oh."

Jaune slowed his breathing, craning his neck around to him gravely. The girls snapped their heads to him, matching their leader's look.

"Ren. Did you just say uh oh?" he asked flatly, his expression made of stone.

"I... may have." the sable haired teen admitted.

" _Why?_ " Jaune questioned severely.

"Probably because of that." Pyrrha pointed a finger behind them, her green eyes going unusually large. Another sigh and Jaune looked to the direction she indicated.

At first he didn't see it, spotting just a black log lying on the path some distance away. Jaune felt no surprise when the log moved, slithering away to rise into the air. The tail end of a single massive creature lazily waved in the air before descending, to allow for the boney head of the Grimm rise to stare at the four. Once it was easily twenty meters above the ground, the King Taijitu let out a distinctive reptilian roar.

"Oh." Jaune mumbled. Even for these monsters, this one was enormous. By its flanks more Grimm appeared, a number of Beowolves backed up by two fierce looking Berigels.

"Of course." Nora muttered.

An hour ago and Jaune would have given the order to attack. As they were, tired and out of breath, he decided on a course of action which could be seen as cowardly.

"Into the cave." he ordered carefully, expecting and then receiving the questioning looks from his team. "Bottleneck. It'll be bad for us but worse for them." Jaune finished by slowly taking a step back, doing his upmost to keep eye contact with the Grimm.

"Agreed." Pyrrha said, backing up as well. Ren and Nora said nothing, slowly bringing their weapons to bear. None of the team wanted to make a hasty move, knowing it would trigger the horde in short order. Unfortunately the Grimm were advancing as well, the movement of every one of the monsters as deliberate as theirs.

Until Jaune suddenly yelled, "Run!" and booked it to the cave for all he was worth. The act began a cascade of sprinting, from his team swiftly catching up to him to the sizable pack giving chase. Their combined stomps made the ground shake ominously.

Turning into the ten meter opening, Jaune hoped there was another way out of the cave. Shouts from the inner part of the cave dashed his hope. Over the roars he heard several of the strange men shouting something, nothing he understood. It wasn't something he could afford to pay attention to; fervently he counted Ren and Pyrrha darting in after him, for a second icy fear clenching his gut. When he forced himself to look away, undisguised relief filled him at discovering Nora had gotten past him already.

Sparing a quick loom behind them, he had a second to process the sight of a dozen of the chain mail armored men clustered near the back of the cave, around a circular indentation in the wall. There may have been something else, but his eyes needed time to adjust to the lowered light level, time he didn't have. The pounding of the Grimm reached a crescendo, and he readied Crocea Mors.

A Beowolf was first one to dart inside the cave opening, which he slammed with his shield before slicing its chest. It struggled on, until a sharp crack from Miló hit it between the eyes. While he struggled with the first, another was furiously clawing its way in. Ren stayed back to keep on his triggers, placing bursts of gunfire on any weak point he could get to. A third one got passed the two already there, only to get smacked into a wall by Nora.

For every Grimm felled, another took its place. Were they mortal creatures, the fallen bodies could have made a makeshift barricade to stem the tide. As it was, the rising cloud of ash made Jaune's eyes water, obscuring his vision. He swung wildly to slay one after another, hoping desperately he didn't hit one of his teammates by mistake. It wasn't by choice that he kept taking steps back, the other three matching him.

He wasn't blind to what happened next: an orange bolt of _something_ flew past him, a bizarre whip crack he had never heard before echoing in the cramped cave. It hit a snarling Ursa in the face, scoring a direct hit which made the beast stop to paw at the injury. Several more hit the Grimm at their flanks of the four; whoever the strangers were, they evidently saw the huntsmen were the only thing holding the tide of monsters back.

Just when it seemed like the horde was tapering off, the King Taijitu's malevolent red eyes appeared in the cave opening. Though large, the entrance was wide enough to permit it entry. Jaune stabbed the snake's snout when it was close enough, but other than making it roar loud enough to shake the entire cave, the attack did nothing. Nora had her cue to cut loose, folding out her grenade launcher and firing round after round into the open mouth.

Falling back to the cave floor (mentally asking when he left it), Jaune hoped Nora's attack did the trick. A single look confirmed two facts: the King Taijitu was dead, dissolving into a cloud of ash thicker than the rest of the Grimm combined. The second was there were even more Grimm charging through the mist of their fallen counterpart, jaws snapping and roaring for their blood.

"Oh come on!" Jaune shouted despairingly. Nora had her jaw dropped in frustrated rage, Ren was looking woozy, and even Pyrrha was appearing out of breath.

The wall behind them lit up, the air itself recoiling from a shockwave which buffeted the four. Unwilling to take his eyes off the massing Grimm, but suddenly curious as to what just happened, he glanced around for a peek. He had a second to notice his team was looking too before he saw it, and then his jaw dropped.

The indentation he initially overlooked was now alight, a perfect circle of shimmering blue covering the cave. The light seemed like water, but was held on the side without anything in sight to support it. Around the shining blue were seven orange lights, arranged as if to pin the water in place. It was unlike anything Jaune had ever seen before, and no matter how much he wanted otherwise, he couldn't look away from the wondrous sight. As he watched, the armored men were scrambling into the glowing surface, vanishing from sight.

Just because he was distracted didn't mean everything else was. The powerful roars from the throats of the amassing Grimm were enough to shake the walls of the tiny cave, and reluctantly he had to look away. He faced forward in time for a charging Berigel to attack, hitting a distracted Pyrrha hard enough to send her flying inwards with a pained cry.

Jaune didn't have time to say or do anything to help her, for the Grimm chose the moment to press their attack. He parried a blow, only for a rampaging Ursa to slam into him. What little air in his burning lungs was forced out, slowing his attempts to kill the bear. Without a word Ren and Nora fell back, spraying indiscriminate fire in a desperate attempt to slow the piling monsters.

When he slammed into a wall, Jaune felt his aura weakening. Enough so the the unique feeling of several ribs cracking was not just his imagination. Pain raced out, for a second greater than even the burning of his air deprived lungs. Strangely he felt a moment of clarity, one great enough to allow him to bring Crocea Mors up to stab the Ursa trying to maul him. When he fell, only by throwing his arms out did he avoid dropping completely. The face of his shield hitting the ground helped, giving enough support to keep him off the cave floor. How the sword stayed in his grip, he had no idea.

He sucked in air, every breath a fresh round of agony. When Jaune looked up, he saw just how bad off they were; Pyrrha had gotten back up, switching Miló to the sword form to hack down any Grimm which got too close, using Akoúo to both block and attack. Even so the sheer weight of the monsters charging meant more and more slashes were getting through, weakening her own aura. Magnhild clicked empty, making Nora snarl while she switched to the hammer. Without the extra firepower, the horde was pushing in closer. Ren was wheezing, his flurry of attacks slowing down to the point of struggling to even land a blow. Idly Jaune wondered if every Grimm in Forever Fall was bearing down on them, their numbers seemed unending.

Blinking, he became aware of light in the corner of his eye. Turning his head revealed the glowing water was still there, serene in the face of death. Perhaps it was the despair at the constant attacks, or the worry for his team, or it was simply desperation. But he saw they couldn't last for much longer, and the weird men in armor had vanished to safety into the glowing puddle. Jaune made a split second decision, unaware of the consequences.

Mustering up what remained of his strength, he bellowed, "Into the light!"

His friends snapping their heads to him in bewildered shock would have been hilarious under any other circumstances. He wasn't laughing, no one was.

"Are you crazy!?" Nora yelled, blocking an attack from a Beowolf. One of the Berigels roared, charging into the fray on all four limbs.

"Go!" Jaune shouted, stabbing his sword at the puddle before attacking an Ursa.

Pyrrha cringed while she fought, unwilling to fall back first despite being the closest to the shimmering surface. Ren and Nora exchanged a pained glance, neither willing to be the first to flee from the fight, potentially leaving the others behind. For Jaune, the thought of going through first never crossed his mind.

Ren was the first to give in, slaying one more Beowolf before taking off in a sprint to the glowing puddle. He leapt, clearing the ground and entering the liquid with a wet pop. Nora was the next, keeping up the pressure as long as she could before she turned and darted through the surface as well. Jaune hobbled over to Pyrrha, taking the head off of one about to attack her before blocking another.

"Go!" he yelled.

"You go, I'll cover you!" she yelled back, punctuating the sentence with a stab at a Beowolf. One of the Berigels was almost upon them, its unsettling red eyes blazing with rage.

It was clear she wasn't going to budge until he did, and vice versa. So with a silent breath she told him, "Sorry."

Jaune had no time to process what she said, since in the next second she swung Akoúo around and backhanded him hard enough to send him flying towards the puddle. She turned to chase his airborne form as fast she could, just behind him while the powerful arms of the Berigel were centimeters away. He was a meter off the ground when he fell onto the glowing surface, feeling it envelope him instantaneously.

Then... he...

... _moved_...

...until he felt himself tumbling through the air, for a moment in free fall. Then he slammed into someone, knocking them both to the ground.

Jaune didn't lose consciousness, but for moment he was simply unaware of anything around him. The only thing registering was the feel of dirt pressing against his face, oddly comfortable dirt. Some dust entered his mouth, coating the interior with crunchy grit. He didn't mind though, he was too busy taking shallow breaths to avoid taxing his broken ribs. For the first time since he woke up, he felt at ease. Then a hand grabbed his shoulder.

He mumbled an incoherent reply, trying to tell whoever it was he was alright, all he needed was a minute or two to recover. They didn't understand him, flipping his body over so his face was pointed upwards. Jaune noticed it was a pretty sky when a hand wrapped around his throat. His meek protesting fell away as lucidity returned, cueing him in to an alarming fact.

Someone was trying to strangle him.

Adrenaline surged through his battered system, for the time being ignoring details like his broken ribs. He yanked his knee up, hitting a plate of metal somewhere on the attacker's torso. As his eyes refocused, he saw the struggling face of whoever was trying to kill him. It was definitely one of the armored men, the forehead mark gave him away. Jaune couldn't think of anything to say to him, all he could do was fling his empty hands at his face to push him away.

Darkness hedged the edge of his vision while he tried to breathe, unable to get the man's strong grip off his throat. Jaune threw a punch at the man's face, knocking him aside but failing to dislodge his hands. Choking, he tried again, putting his reserves of strength into the blow this time.

The grip on his throat loosened some, allowing some air to get in. Not enough, not by far. But enough for him to draw his fist back again, to slam it into the tattooed man's jaw. He hit hard enough to finally flinging the man's bulky form off of him. While there was a chance he brought his leg up and kicked for all he was worth, knocking the attacker onto his own back..

Forcing his aching body up felt like torture, his nerves screaming in pain. Jaune had to do it though, since the tattooed man was already recovering. Blindly he felt for Crocea Mors, pawing fruitlessly at the smoothened dirt. The man was on his knees and rising, his expression tainted by rage. He failed to notice the form of somebody getting behind him, nor did he discover the hard blow to his temple which knocked him out cold.

Jaune slowly comprehended the tattooed man was dealt with, his savior half stumbling towards as she heaved. Blinking, the hazy fog over his vision cleared away. When he saw the bronze toned greave in front of him, he reached up to grasp it. The owner of the hand was tired, yet retained enough strength to easily yank him back onto his rubbery feet.

"Thanks." he panted. Covered by a sheen of sweat and a score of minor injuries, Pyrrha shakily nodded.

At once Jaune moved his head around, taking stock of his surroundings. Relief washed over him when he spotted the others nearby, weakened by their bruised and scuffed forms. Waving a heavy arm, he grabbed their attention to get them closer. Despite how much he was starting to hurt, he pushed the pain aside to check their condition first. Ren especially was looking bad, swaying on his feet as his chest billowed. Nora had a cut above her brow, a tiny scratch trailing a line of blood down her temple.

"You guys alright?" Jaune asked, brushing off the thought of his own state. Glancing at the ground showed where Crocea Mors landed, a meter away from his struggle. Bending over hurt a lot, but having a weapon in hand made up for it.

"I'm... hah... tired." Ren wheezed, stopping to breathe. He was exhausted, struggling to stay on his feet.

"That was rough." Pyrrha agreed. She was in the best condition out of them, though it didn't mean much. Her shield had a large dent in the side, preventing it from folding in properly. The base of her javelin was planted on the ground, too heavy at the moment to lift it properly.

"Yeah. I was going to thank these guys for giving us a way out of there, but..." he looked around the clearing. The armored men were lying on the ground in various poses, all of them clearly unconscious. Questions of who they were or what they wanted could wait.

Nora was looking uncharacteristically down at their rough state. She sighed quietly and looked around, reflexively checking for the Grimm which would soon be upon them. Then she blinked, her expression falling away. "Guys?"

Jaune glanced at her, suppressing a flash of irritation. The feeling died when he saw the wide eyes and dropped jaw of his friend. Never before had he seen a look of utter shock on the bubbly girl's face, with no trace of humor or joy. Like Pyrrha and a suddenly paling Ren, he saw her staring in the direction past them. Then, done so closely to be in sync, the three turned their heads to where Nora was staring wide eyed.

They were in the edge of a valley, with rolling green hills stretching away to block the horizon. Foliage in sight was thick, reminding Jaune of some of the locations to the far south; Beacon was a minimum of a thousand kilometers away from those places. Now that his ears were no longer ringing, he began to hear animals noises coming from the trees. None of them were recognizable. At the far end of the valley, there was a massive gilded structure unlike anything else on Remnant. It was tall, with several rising spires around a massive golden pyramid. Though nothing gave it scale, the pyramid alone was clearly several hundred meters high.

The final straw to cause Jaune's jaw to drop was the sky. It was mid morning when he heard the first horn; the white sun's location was at the noontime peak, shadowed by a red pockmarked moon. On the far horizon another white toned moon was starting to poke above the edge of the hills. Neither appeared shattered, uniquely whole.

Staring with morbid fascination, he unconsciously gulped.

"Not good." was the best he could get out.

"I... don't think we're on Remnant." Ren spoke quietly.

Pyrrha was the first to look away, to great difficulty. Her breathing was picking up, having nothing to do with the exertion she put herself through only minutes ago. Noticing one of the armored men beginning to stir, she quickly step over to smack him with her shield. He fell again, leaving her free to scan her surroundings.

"But how?" Nora blurted out.

"I… don't know." Ren's breathing was picking up, having little to do with his exhaustion.

"I think it was this." Pyrrha said loudly, breaking the spell the unfamiliar sky had them under.

In all the chaos, Jaune supposed it was understandable he had overlooked some things. Such as the seven meter tall statue they were unseemly close to. The enormous ring, a meter wide and looking to be made of black stone, was covered in etched symbols he didn't recognize. A set of granite steps led up to the edge of the statue, giving the impression of a walkway. In the center was nothing but air, showing him a tree line a hundred meters away. The more he thought about it, the more it dawned on him the size of the inside was very close to the glowing water back in the cave.

"Oh... kay. Okay. Let's... let's take stock of what we have." Jaune said loudly, pulling out his scroll to check its battery. Fortunately he charged it before they left, so it was still in the upper nineties. A flashing alert on the screen told him 'no signal' in bold print.

Despite their worry, the three did as he told them to. Ren checked his ammunition first, while Pyrrha and Nora patted pockets or pouches for anything which could be of use. He put a great deal of effort into not thinking about the implications of what happened, knowing if he stopped to realize they were a long, _long_ , _**long**_ ways from home, he would lose it. Cry, scream, blabber, all of that and more just as the start.

"I got a candy bar, my scroll, and three spare rounds left for Magnhild." Nora reported duly, worry in her tone.

"Scroll and thirty rounds here." Ren answered, giving the closest of the tattooed men a wary look. His breath was getting back to normal, which Jaune decided was good news.

"Scroll too, down to five rounds. I meant to pick up some more later..." Pyrrha shook her head, grimacing.

Jaune nodded, appearing to keep it together. Inwardly he was all but screaming. The full impact was kept at arms length, how they barely had enough to deal with one fight, against foes they knew how to deal with. The armored men were a complete mystery, and he could only put off dealing with them for so long. Sooner or later they would have to let them get up, to find out something. Where they were, how did they get here, and most importantly how go get back. A quiet sigh left him, while he wracked his brain for anything that could help them.

"Okay. First thing we need to do is find some rope. Or rope like stuff, doesn't matter. Something we can tie these guys up with." he gestured to the closest man, lying prone in a pile of limbs.

"Then we interrogate them?" Ren asked dubiously.

"Yeah, I guess. We'll just find out how to get back to Forever Fall, then we go. That simple." Jaune answered cheerfully. His forced smile disintegrated at the sight of his team's uncertain looks, making him take a deep breath. "I'm open to suggestions."

"What if..." Pyrrha began, but she stopped herself. "Never mind."

Jaune quickly moved on. "Its okay. Um, Nora, could you check out around the statue? There might be-"

One part of the statue locked, glowing orange. They all stopped what they were doing to look at the yellowish chevron, second to the top of the ring. When the second locked into place a heartbeat later they leapt into action, switching to guns in order to point at the active object.

Jaune put his shield between him and the thing, ignoring a stab of pain from his broken ribs. He was more preoccupied with regretting for the umpteenth time not getting a firearm of some sort, leaving him useless in situations like these. When the fifth locked in place he glanced at a staff discarded by its unconscious owner. For all of four seconds he considered grabbing the weapon, but when he realized he had no idea what it even was, let alone if it was the type that spat the bolts earlier, he abandoned the idea.

The chevron at the top of the ring locked in place, the edges of the ring sending out a cascade of energetic water which made all of them flinch. The watery bloom only went out a short distance, which they were all well away from. When it shrank back, Jaune noticed the bloom stopped at the edge of the steps. It settled into a flat pool of rippling water, identical to the surface he told his friends to jump into.

Seconds later a single figure left the pool, then another, then another, then one more. Team JNPR tensed up, gripping their weapons tighter while the new arrivals realized there was a hostile welcoming party waiting for them. One who was clearly looking worse for wear.

"Oh." went the first man. Behind him the water, whatever it was, shorted out with an electric crackle.

Jaune saw immediately these people were different. The first was an older man in his forties, clad in a green outfit with a black vest and a billed cap on his head. Equipment was strapped all over him, the weapon he had pointed in their general direction. The others were similar; a blonde woman a little younger yet equipped the same way, a tall dark skinned man who was bald but had a golden emblem on his forehead, and a short haired man in glasses. They regarded the armed huntsmen with puzzled surprise.

Gulping away his nervousness, Jaune said loudly, "Who are you?"

The older man, possibly the one in charge, replied, "You first."

"I'm Jaune Arc, of Team JNPR." he answered without missing a beat, internally proud to have kept a stutter out of his voice.

The man frowned, while his companions exchanged curious glances. When he lowered his gun, Jaune looked to his friends, uncertain at how to proceed. When Pyrrha began to lower Miló, they reluctantly did the same.

"Nice." the woman said noncommittally, keeping her gun down.

"Indeed." the dark skinned man's deep voice agreed, curiously flat. In his hands was a staff just like the tattooed men. He looked over the fallen men without visible emotion.

"So?" Jaune prompted.

"Right. I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force. This is, uh." he awkwardly hesitated. "This is SG-1. You guys aren't from around here, are you?"

00000

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 **A/N: this one took a lot longer than I thought it would. Call it a trite excuse, but I have been seriously busy as of late. Thanks to all of you for the interest. I'd ask for a review but eh, it doesn't matter**.


	5. Information

"When SG-1 took us to Earth they explained how things work out here. The Gates, state of the galaxy at large, that kind of stuff. Since we had no idea how addresses worked, let alone our own home's location, they offered to shelter us until they found it." Jaune finished, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked a little nervous once he was finished, unsure of how his friends would react.

The four girls stared at him, enraptured by the tale he just told them. While only Ruby had wondered where and how they ended up after the team vanished, the others had been putting fresh thought into his circumstances in the past several minutes. Weiss was the first to shake out of their thoughts and speak up after the lengthy speech, clearing her throat carefully to get everyone's attention.

"And in return, you were drafted." she stated flatly, thinking she finished the summary for him.

Jaune's cheery expression was broken, his face scrunching up in unwelcome surprise. Ruby flinched and twisted her head towards the pale girl in shock. Her face showed a clear visage of the conflict in herself; for a moment she was outright angry at Weiss for the bold accusation, but when she began to think of how to refute her, the story her friend told them was put into a fresh light.

She remembered her classes with Professor Port, how whole villages were forced to serve the various armies during the Great War eighty years ago, lest they would be abandoned to the Grimm and Bandits in the wilds. The amount of effort her professors spent on teaching them how to be Huntresses made her realize how valuable their talents were. Earth had to gain skills and knowledge of such a caliber for their own, and since they had no way to escape... a shudder worked its way through her system.

When she turned to a still off-balanced Jaune, her countenance was one of pained curiosity, like she wanted an answer but was afraid to ask.

"Forced into this... Guess I kinda gave that impression didn't I?" Jaune sighed softly, shrugging to loosen up the situation.

"Yeah, you did." Yang said carefully, eyeing him carefully.

The red Huntress gulped, looking up at the boy and hoping for an answer. "Were you?"

"Promise you won't be upset?" he asked her carefully. His blue eyes roaming around, looking for some unspoken answer from the others. None of them gave any sign.

"I won't." she agreed, bracing herself. A dozen guesses flitted through her mind, each one more unpleasant than the last: was he forced to serve for some greater good? Was he brainwashed? Were Nora and the rest taken as hostages to keep him there? Did they get drafted too? Or was he working for them under pain of death? Her imagination went wild with the horrible possibilities.

"I volunteered."

Ruby was silent, her jaw dropping at the answer. He raised a placating hand, wincing at her shock. A peek out the corner of his eye showed him the others weren't much better; Weiss was practically gaping at him and Blake was looking like he had just spouted off some nonsense. Strangely Yang was taking the admission well, frowning while she leaned back on the grass.

"Somehow, I'm not surprised." she murmured thoughtfully.

"You... you _chose_ this?" Weiss exclaimed in shock, her blue eyes wide open.

Jaune sighed, giving the back of his neck a scratch. "Well, it was Pyrrha's idea to sign up with them, but we all agreed to it. Look, I know this is a lot to take in." he said sympathetically. His hands raised up, hoping it would help calm everyone down.

"Yeah, a lot." Blake agreed dourly.

"But we had a good reason for it. No coercion on the SGC, um, Stargate Command's part. Actually, they didn't want us to join them at all." Jaune offered instead, causing Ruby to give him a bizarre look. Yang lifted her left hand to make a circular motion in the air. "Hammond, he's the General in charge of the SGC, he was perfectly willing to resettle the four of us to anyplace that was safe. Earth, one of their off world allies, wherever it was safest." he explained hastily.

"But he let you join." Blake countered, frowning at him.

"After five weeks of bugging him and every officer in the base, yeah." Jaune responded, the corners of his mouths turned upwards. Somehow, Ruby could easily picture him harassing the Major from earlier in order to join his team. She wanted to giggle at the mental image, but what it resulted in stopped her.

"Wait, then why did you...?" Weiss struggled to say even that, having difficulty imagining what kind of people he now worked for. She shook her head, trying to cudgel her thoughts back into working order.

Jaune sighed, dropping any semblance of cheer. "Listen, there are things out here that make the Grimm look pitiful. True evil, unlike anything you have ever known. The SGC fights these things a lot."

"This means you too?" Ruby asked carefully, making him nod.

"Words don't get across just how monstrous they are. When they explained what they were up against, well, I couldn't just stand by." he explained grimly, a pained expression flashing over him for a moment.

"What's out here that's so bad?" Blake carefully questioned, peeking at the village a short distance away.

"Did the people here tell you about their gods?" he asked unexpectedly.

Weiss spoke up, having recovered most of her wits. "A little. The main god they worship here is called Thor. There's also demons called, um, what was it?" she looked to the others for an answer.

"Some weird word. I thought she said gold at first." Ruby said, frowning in thought.

"It did sound a lot like gold. The evil gods are called System Lords." Blake added, nodding.

"They're called Goa'uld." Jaune said simply.

Ruby scrunched up her brow. "Gawold." she tried to say the strange word.

"Goa'uld." Weiss repeated, letting the odd blend of syllables flow off her tongue.

"Um, Goold. Is it just a pronunciation thing?" Yang tried to lighten the mood, but the hard expression on Jaune made it wither.

"What's a Goa'uld?" Blake questioned at last, frowning. Their friend took a quiet breath, steadying himself.

"What they are is evil incarnate. They're parasitic creatures about this long." he lifted both hands, keeping them apart a distance of under half a meter. "Looks like the offspring of a worm and a snake."

"Doesn't sound so bad." Ruby shrugged off easily, then cringing at the look he sported.

"If it was all they were none of us would be here. Its what they do that makes them a nightmare." Jaune replied grimly. "They burrow into you, either from the back of your throat, through the front of your neck, even into your chest if they're close enough." he thumped the center of his vest for emphasis. "Though a lot prefer to enter through the back of the neck. Then they dig, until the thing reaches your spinal cord. It wraps around your brain stem, and it takes you over."

Yang was looking a little nauseous at the explanation, but the last words knocked her back into the present. "What'd you mean, take over?"

"Just that. The parasite controls you completely, you can't move at all. Fingers, toes, blinking, you can't even breathe without the thing willing for it. It knows everything you know, it feels your thoughts like they're its own. Once a Goa'uld is in you, you're a prisoner inside your own mind." Jaune finished, all but seething.

Ruby could only stare in shock. "And it..."

"The worst part is that you're still conscious. It controls you like a puppet, and there's nothing you can do. The host is driven insane under the treatment." he told them, a faint scowl on his features.

The red toned girl was fundamentally horrified; she tried to imagine being stripped of her free will, completely at someone's else's mercy. It was worse than repressing personal identity, it was slavery of the purest form.

"No way. No creature is like that." Weiss stated flatly, giving a short shake of her head in defiance.

"They're real." Jaune insisted tightly.

"There's nothing like that on-" Blake caught herself, wincing at the mistake. Her surroundings by itself meant her assumption was false.

"How do you know they're real?" Weiss insisted. "For all you know, those Earthers could've fed you a lie in order to-"

"I've seen it." The heiress was silenced mid rant, caught off guard once again. Blake blinked in astonishment, while Ruby never stopped staring at him in shock. Yang cleared her throat, wishing she didn't have to speak.

"You...have?" she said hesitantly, cringing at herself.

"Yeah. Saw a friend and teammate suffer possession by one of those things. Its not something I would wish upon my worst enemy." he dropped his head and sighed deeply, avoiding looking at any of them.

"Jaune?" Ruby said quietly.

"It's…" he dropped his head to sigh. "I'm sorry. Just... This wasn't how I imagined this would happen." he shook his head, tussling the messy hair she remembered.

A silent voice within her mind wondered if finding him was as good of an idea as she assumed it to be. Quashing the thought, Ruby pressed on.

"Are there any of those things here?" she asked, giving a worried look at their surroundings.

When Jaune lifted his head again, he briefly shook his head. "No. This planet is under the Asgard's protection. The monolith in front of the gate? The whole light show thing?" They nodded rapidly. "It scanned you all for one. Since you're right here, it means you're fine."

"Good to know, but what does that have to do with the local religion?" Blake asked confusedly.

"Its easier to accept something as divine than to understand what it is. The Goa'uld pretend to be gods to help control their slave populations. Some are nuts enough to believe it themselves." he answered, his tone showing disgust at the very idea.

Yang frowned. "Hold up, if the goold pretend to be gods, what're the Askgard then?"

Before Jaune answered her, he took a fresh look at his watch, widening his eyes.

"Crap, we spent too much time talking." he murmured, reaching out to snag his hat. Yang glowered at the lack of an answer.

When Jaune began to get up, Ruby jumped to her feet first with a flutter of petals. The others rose as well, all of them taking a moment to stretch sore muscles. The blond adjusted the gear on him, moving the gun to a seemingly random spot before nodding and gripping it. Once that was done, he tipped his head in the direction of the gate.

"Lets go." he said simply, walking away in a slow pace. Exchanging a short look with her team, Ruby darted after him.

Yang looked to Weiss, Weiss looked to Blake, and Blake looked to Yang. Without words they debated, the uncertainty of the situation calling for a new plan. But when the blonde saw how her sister was walking off with her long lost friend, she sighed and turned away. The faunus trudged after her, trying to keep some form of composure. The heiress grimaced at being left behind, but in the end she trotted after them, knowing there was no other way home.

Pointedly not noticing her friends' hesitation, Ruby quizzically asked, "So, what's it like? Being in the military I mean."

"Believe it or not its not much different from being a Huntsman. You see new places, spend most of the workday on your feet, and get into fights with bad guys a lot." Jaune answered as he brushed off the question.

"Really?" she went, making him give a brief chortle.

"There are a few differences though. On Earth the Stargate program is classified, so I can't tell anyone there about what I do. Makes casual conversations kinda awkward." he said bashfully. He was keeping an even pace which was distinctly not a march, but it may have been a conscious move.

"Then, what do you tell them?" she asked while she kept up. Behind them the rest of her team caught up, for the moment keeping a short distance away and whispering to each other.

"Well, I have what they call a cover identity. Officially I'm an immigrant from Quebec, Canada." Jaune chuckled, shaking his head to some inside joke, which trailed off upon seeing the blank look on her face. "Right, forgot. Earth is split up into several kingdoms, though they call them countries. The one that runs the program is called the United States of America. Canada is on its northern border." he explained.

Behind them Yang pushed forward, taking a spot opposite of her sister. "How many kingdoms are there?" she asked, a little more forcefully than she intended.

"Total? Around two hundred." he answered, making her's and the others jaws drop. "But there's only around a half dozen which really matter. The big five are the ones that make the choices which affect the whole planet."

While not obvious at first glance, Ruby noticed he was standing up straighter than she remembered. It was like the faint uncertainty he always carried with him back at Beacon was missing, and some self confidence had taken its place. What was glaringly clear was the way he held on the square gun with one hand, a ready position if she ever saw one. She wanted to congratulate whoever it was that gave him such a boost, but she also felt leery at the unwarranted paranoia he freely displayed.

"Um, how many people are on Earth?" Weiss piped up. Jaune looked over his shoulder with an evil grin. Seeing it, Ruby mentally prepared herself for a new shock. Idly she wondered if it was possible to get used to having the entire world getting turned on its head continually.

"Six billion and counting." he answered. Rather than a stunned look, the pale girl snorted, causing Blake to give her a funny look.

"Now I know that is a lie. But you'll throw out some line about 'I've seen it' or something, right?" she said dryly, causing him to shrug.

"If you don't believe me its okay. Frankly its the least weirdest thing about Earth." he looked back ahead.

"So, if there's six billion people." Blake began dubiously. "How do they keep the Grimm away? They have to have a good way of fighting them." she said, eyeing the gun he carried.

Jaune stopped walking, catching them all off guard for a moment. When the girls paused to look at him as he turned around, there was an unidentifiable look on his face. Once he was certain they all had their eyes on him, he spoke up.

"Should've said this first. Look around." he waved a hand at the crisp wilderness in every direction, broken only by the village behind them. "Noticed something strange about this place?"

"Besides the lack of hygiene?" Weiss commented blandly, crossing her arms.

"I think if I showed my scroll around, the people here would burn me as a witch." Yang added. Jaune only grinned.

"They're worried about demons invading, the Gawold." Ruby said, the gears in her head turning. She had the feeling the answer was right in front of her, but she couldn't quite see it. Not for the first time she was irritably reminded why class was her least favorite place to be.

Blake widened her eyes. "There's no Grimm here."

"Exactly." he grinned, looking quite pleased by her answer. "I've been to a lot of different places and seen some really weird stuff. But in all of my travels, I haven't encountered anything even remotely like the Grimm, anywhere."

"At all?" Weiss asked in confusion, three heads nodding in agreement.

"Remnant is the only world in the known universe with Grimm. Dunno how, dunno why. All I can say is its a good thing. Notice how no one here seems to have an awakened Aura?" he waved a hand around their location.

"I didn't think everyone here was like that." Ruby murmured thoughtfully, trying to imagine a world without Grimm. Then it dawned on her that she didn't have to: Cimmeria was a strange place for certain, but its people didn't live in fear of monsters. They could exist as they wanted to, never knowing the terror which haunted every man, woman, and child on Remnant. She stole a glance at the nearby forest, looking at the few peaks in the far distance with fresh eyes. There were a few hostile things out there if Hilda was right, none of them coming close to the danger of the Grimm.

"So, if you wanted to, its possible to settle somewhere out here and not have to deal with Grimm ever again." Yang said, half to herself.

Blake frowned. "Didn't you say the Goa'uld were out in the universe? Then being out here is a bad idea?"

"They're powerful and more dangerous than you can imagine, but the snakes aren't omnipotent. For every world they control, there's a couple dozen others no traveler has set foot on for centuries, and thats not counting uninhabited planets." Jaune said easily. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ruby giving him a strange look.

"Snakes?" she repeated confusedly. He blinked, realizing his mistake.

"Oh, right. Its just a shorthand, snake is quicker and easier to say than Goa'uld." he replied, a little too quickly. Ruby wasn't fooled; she knew an insult when she heard one. His description of the creatures mitigated the feeling somewhat, but she couldn't help wondering what kind of things the Earth people had been doing to cause the goofy yet accepting boy she knew to use a derogatory name so easily. Or what else he gave such names to. Jaune sighed.

"Lets get going." he repeated lowly, turning around to walk towards the gate again. Ruby's teammates exchanged a significant glance once again, with Blake in particular quietly simmering. This time, when they looked to Ruby she met their gazes. More was said in the brief period of eye contact than several minutes of conversation.

Still, no matter her feelings on the matter, one fact remained the same: the enigmatic circle of black stone was their only way back home, and Jaune knew how to use it better than any of them. When she caught up to him once again, Ruby resolved to give him the benefit of the doubt before she made a decision. For a moment neither said anything, continuing to walk along back to the gate. When the ring came into view she had enough of the silence, so she went to the one item which guaranteed answers.

"Where's your sword?" Ruby asked.

"Crocea Mors? On Earth right now. The SGC doesn't like it when their gate teams take unauthorized equipment, but I and the others can usually grab our stuff. Could tell you this funny story about this one time I got into a sword fight on this remote planet. Poor guy is still mad at me." Jaune shook his head in bemusement.

"But not now." she pointed out.

"Yeah, but this was supposed to be a first contact mission. Having a sword strapped to your hip, or a scythe on your back." he nodded to Crescent Rose. "Doesn't make friends very well."

"Huh. So... you use that instead?" Ruby pointed to the blocky gun.

Upon hearing the question the other girls closed in to discreetly listen, with close to the same goal. 'A man's weapon tells you much about himself' went the old saying. And there was much about these 'Tau'ri' they needed to know.

"This?" he lifted the rectangular gun up, making the sling tug on him. "Yeah. Its called an FN P90. A lot of the off-world teams use these."

"Cool." Ruby commented, relieved at finding something she could understand. "Can I see?"

Jaune cringed. "I'm... not permitted to, it's against regulations, but-" he said quickly at the first sign of her crestfallen expression. "I guess you of all people should know what you're doing. If you don't tell anyone it'll be alright."

Lifting the gun up over his head, Jaune dragged the strap keeping it looped around his body off. Weiss darted over, quietly offering to help him (and to sate her own curiosity) while Yang and Blake were content with getting a good look at the weapon held in the air. Once he was free from the sling's grasp, he gingerly offered it over to Ruby, who accepted the weapon with great care.

While her initial impression of the weapon was uncharacteristically chilled, she found herself deeply curious to what it was actually like. Turning the light gun over in her hands, she spied several details about the firearm, from the orange plastic magazine showing dozens of tiny bullets to the small sights. While there was a few things she recognized (a safety catch, ejection port, and of course the trigger) many familiar parts were missing. Frowning, she wondered if it was actually a training weapon, the lack of bulk odd from her point of view.

"Whats it do?" she asked, turning it over so the stock was close to her shoulder and the grips were in her small hands. Experimentally she pressed the gun firmly against herself, mimicking the pose she saw Atlesian troopers use. To her surprise it fit her small frame almost perfectly; if her arms were a little longer or the P90 a little shorter, she would have guessed it was purpose made just for her. When she lifted the barrel up to aim at a faraway stretch of forest, Blake and Weiss looked over her with amazement, while Yang scrambled to get her scroll out.

"Shoots stuff" Jaune answered easily. Yang's attempt to take a picture was halted, her mane of blonde hair turning in time with her companions.

"And?" Blake prompted. He chuckled nervously under their expectant stares, averting his eyes.

"Uh... it's got built in flashlight." he continued weakly.

Weiss snorted. "Who makes a gun that only shoots bullets? Tell me you can at least whack something with this dinky thing."

"You can, but doing it will probably wreck the gun. The SGC do train their people in hand to hand combat, only as a last resort though." Jaune explained bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck.

In that moment, Ruby Rose reached an epoch defining conclusion. "Earth people are weird."

Jaune sighed and dropped his head in defeat. "Pretty much, yeah." he quietly agreed, listlessly accepting the P90 back when she held it out. Yang tried to touch it herself, but a quick smack by Blake stopped her attempt. While he was replacing the gun around his torso, he forcefully perked back up.

"I think that's enough about me. Why don't you fill me in on how you guys got here?" Jaune asked brightly.

As one all four girls looked away, briefly flustered. Jaune's weak cheer turned to confusion.

"Its a long story." Ruby said carefully, causing him to chuckle.

"No shortage of those. But c'mon, how? Don't tell me, Remnant has its own Stargate program." he guessed with a coy smile.

"Um... no." Blake replied hesitantly, looking away.

"We just found the thing this morning." Yang said, before sparing an uncertain look skyward. "Well, morning back home."

"Really? Then, hang on." Jaune stopped yet again, only this time the team was ready for it. Weiss discreetly sidestepped behind the others, out of his line of sight. "There are tens of thousands of possible symbol combinations, you can dial for weeks on end without getting a viable address, and that's if you're lucky. There's no way you just found the gate this morning and got it to work." he explained, frowning and crossing his arms.

"We, um." Yang looked to an interesting stretch of forest instead of continuing.

Finally Ruby sighed, glancing in the direction of her sister. Huddled behind the blonde was Weiss, who was frantically waving her away. When the bigger girl stepped aside she was left in plain view, aghast at the attention being laid upon her. Jaune especially, there was something to his gaze which had her on edge.

"Are we really doing this?" she asked despairingly.

"Please, the basics at least." he gently pressured, holding up a flattened hand.

"It's okay, no ones going to laugh at you." Yang assured, to which they all nodded to.

Finally Weiss dropped her head with a sigh. "I had a dream. There."

When she peeked up, all four pairs of eyes were still fixated on her.

"Gah, fine." she grumbled, rolling her eyes. "I don't remember what all happened in it, but when I woke up I knew you guys were in Forever Fall somewhere. Blake found the gate by accident when we went searching, and when I saw the altar thingy, I... I blacked out. When I came to, the ring was on." Wess finished testily, as if daring them to laugh at her.

No one did. In fact, Jaune's frown deepened.

"So, odd dream, overriding goal to take care of, and when you saw the thing, you made it work without being aware of it. Right?" he recounted as he crossed his arms over the weapon.

"Long and short of it." Blake agreed, frowning at his reaction.

"It was really creepy too." Ruby added, giving Weiss a sympathetic look.

"So, going to say its weird?" she challenged.

He shook his head. "No, by my standards these days that's pretty tame." he sighed once more, apparently steadying himself. "Good news is I think I know what caused this." Jaune said, causing the pale teen to blink.

"Huh? Really?" Weiss asked, astonished. He nodded.

"I know a few experts who can tell you more. But for the why, I have no idea." he admitted with a shrug.

"Wait, so what did this?" Ruby asked quickly.

"I could tell you." he began, using a tone of voice she knew meant the opposite of what he said. "But we'd be here all day, probably for a chunk of the next, and at the end you'll think I'm crazy."

"Real copout." Yang noted dryly, causing him to sigh once more.

"Not kidding, no matter how much I wish I was." he said quietly.

"Why can't you just tell me?" Weiss demanded, the beginnings of a scowl crossing her features.

"Sorry. I'm sorry in general." he began regretfully, slumping his shoulders. "I know you have a million and ten questions you want to ask me. But we have to get back-" Jaune suddenly stopped, freezing in place. Upon seeing his eyes widen, Ruby became worried, far more than before.

"What is it?" Ruby asked urgently, jerking closer in alarm. When his hands lifted to his head, Yang and Blake reflexively went for their weapons. She was a hairsbreadth away from drawing her scythe when he uttered two concise words.

"Oh. Crap." Rather than calming her down, she became even more alarmed. Looking both shocked and frightened, Jaune glanced to them. "This whole time, I assumed you guys were in some type of project like me. If you're not..." he said hoarsely.

"What? Whats the problem?" Blake demanded.

"It didn't even occur to me until just now. If you're not, and you don't know anything about the Stargate network, then you don't know how it works, then, then... crap." he half whimpered, appearing to be on the edge of a breakdown. Ruby couldn't understand what had him so upset, or why.

Yang sighed irritably, clicking Ember Celia out of its ready mode. "Jaune, drop the act and just gimme a straight answer."

"Do you know about how the Stargate works?" he questioned frantically, causing both Ruby and Weiss to wince from their proximity.

"Um, sort of. To get somewhere, you have to hit six symbols in the right order then the red button in the center. Right?" Blake responded uncertainly, taking a hand off her sword but failing to relax.

"Yeah yeah that's the basics." he waved off almost irritably. "Each gate has its own unique address. If you don't know the specific set of symbols, you're not going to be able to access that specific gate." Jaune explained tightly.

"So...?" Ruby left the question hanging, now having a decent guess of what had him upset but unwilling to assume anything.

"If you don't know your home address, you're not going home. That simple." he finished, clearly frayed.

"But we do." Yang said. At once Jaune froze again, whatever he was about to say next utterly forgotten. When she glanced to the heiress, he too creaked his head to the girl. She huffed, more out of irritation than any genuine anger.

"One of the people here filled us in, me rather, on which glyphs lit up when I dialed from Remnant. Showed me which ones in what order needed to get hit to get it to function." Weiss told him.

Jaune gulped. "You sure?"

"Tried it a minute later, worked just fine. Do you think I would screw it up?" she replied.

When he wobbled precariously, Ruby closed in with her arms out. She hovered close to him, wincing as he staggered in place. Strangely, the dumbstruck expression on his face seemed to mimic relief more than anything else. It took most of a minute for him to regain his balance, the red huntress staying close to help if he needed it. The three others decided to watch him instead, only the faunus guessing correctly what he was feeling. When he was steady again, Jaune took a deep breath.

"Okay... okay." he mumbled.

"Jaune, would you be so kind as to explain what the heck is wrong with you?" Weiss questioned dryly. He stood up straight again and gulped, Ruby backing away carefully. The moment he acted up again she would be on him, she mentally promised.

"You have no idea how big of a bullet you dodged." he got out at last.

"So I was right about the number thing, great!" Yang pumped a fist in the air. "Blake, you owe me a soda." she proclaimed, earning a raised brow from the faunus.

"I'm the one who made the mobile analogy, not you. And I never made a deal like that." she calmly refuted.

"Eh, semantics." Yang errantly waved off.

"Were you worried we'd be stuck out here?" Weiss asked with a small smirk. He nodded without a trace of mirth.

"You're taking this well." Jaune noted with confusion.

"The people here are nice." Ruby told him. "Hjord helped us out a lot. Wish I could've repaid the favor."

He ran a hand down his face. "You're a lot luckier than we were." he murmured.

"You still didn't answer me, who or what did something to me?" Weiss's good mood evaporated, stomping closer to him.

Jaune offered a sympathetic look. "Its, well, I don't think you'll believe me. The experts I mentioned though, they can tell you what happened." he told her before turning back to the Stargate, a mere twenty meters away.

Ruby followed his lead, internally cringing. Staying behind him while he strolled up to the altar she couldn't help delaying him in any way she could. Without looking at her or the others he reached out to tap the first of several symbols, making the orange chevron on the ring light up with a mechanical crack. Yang, Weiss, and Blake stayed well to the side of the steps, firmly out of the way the otherworldly fluid bloomed from.

"Hey." Ruby said, causing him to look away from the altar with only three glyphs indicated. "What happens if you don't finish typing in the number? Or, um, whatever its called?" she asked, eying both him and the machine. She noticed how at ease he was with the device however, no hesitation at all. Behind them Blake was looking over, more focused on the latter.

"Earth people call it a DHD, Dial Home Device." he explained. A couple of seconds later, the lights on the altar blinked off. The three chevrons blinked off as well. "And nothing. Just give it a few seconds and it'll be ready to go again." Jaune answered, turning back to the panel. Ruby felt the presence of someone closing in behind her, politely stepping aside so they could walk closer to him. Before his hand could touch the DHD again, she spoke.

"One last thing?" Blake asked, stopping the attempt and causing him to turn around. "I've been meaning to ask, the big whoosh thing that happens before its safe to walk in? What happens if you touch it?"

Rather than answering her, Jaune looked to Ruby. "Could you do me a real big favor?"

"Sure." she agreed, curious to what he wanted.

"Could you find me a stick? A long one, doesn't matter what condition its in." he explained.

Instead of speaking, Ruby vanished in a flutter of rose petals. Weiss and Yang took the opportunity to walk closer, both eyeing him strangely. He shrugged in response.

"You'll see." he promised. The dry look from Yang especially told him her thoughts on the matter.

Several awkward seconds later Ruby returned the same way she arrived, a piece of a dead tree branch a meter and a half long in her hands. Jaune nodded approvingly.

"Good. Now, when I dial, I want you to hold the stick out to the stuff." he explained. The look of uncertainty on her face didn't stop her from nodding, hesitantly moving closer to the ring and holding the stick out as far as she could reach.

"No technical term for the kawoosh?" Blake asked. Yang nodded in agreement, while Weiss gave her a dry look. Jaune shook his head.

"There is this super long term for it that I can never remember, but no, there isn't an official name. Now." he stepped by the DHD once more, taking enough time to see if the red toned girl was in the right place. He quickly motioned for her to step back a little before nodding. "Watch and see." he said softly, hand extending out to tap one glyph after another in quick succession. Almost as fast, the chevrons lit up in response.

When the last clicked into place, Ruby stopped herself from shivering. Unconsciously she held her breath, suppressing the urge to get away when the watery blast reached out. By sheer force of will she stayed in place, keeping the stick in the path of the bloom while it reached out a few meters. Only when it retracted to settle into the glowing surface did she relax, taking a deep breath and lowering the stick to the ground. It took her a second to notice the stick went lower to the ground than before, a lot lower.

Lifting it up, Ruby peered at the end. Her breath caught in her throat; more than half the stick (not much better than unbroken kindling) was missing. On the tip, the much closer tip, there was a sloped point on the end. While flat, it was heavily charred, as if a flamethrower had gone to it. Numbly she turned around, showing the vaporized end to the rest of her team. Curiosity quickly turned to shock, Blake in particular gulping nervously.

Jaune walked passed them fiddling with a tiny machine on his vest, pausing to look them over. "So, rule number two of gate travel: the pretty kawoosh? Don't get caught by it." he stated simply. This time all four gulped, Ruby unceremoniously dropping the charred stick. She trued desperately to not imagine herself in the stick's place.

Now throughly unsettled, Ruby glanced at the shimmering surface of the active Stargate. Jaune stood by the edge of the portal, waving for them to go in. Yang sighed and cracked her knuckles, testily strolling up the steps into the water. Whatever fear she felt was pushed aside as she stepped through the puddle. Weiss was far more subdued, giving him a worried look before she too allowed herself to be engulfed. Blake half walked, half crept closer to the shimmering surface, taking a second to run her hand over the rippling surface before entering with a wet plop.

Finally it was Ruby's turn, carefully approaching the edge. When she was within a few centimeters of it, she glanced to Jaune, cringing.

"It's perfectly safe." he told her reassuringly, quietly waving her on. She took a steadying breath.

"I know. Just, gimme a second." she said back, standing in place.

"Okay, see you on the other side." Jaune said, cheerfully strolling through and disappearing.

She was sure he mistook the source of her apprehension, thinking it was the gate which caused it. If he thought so, then he was wrong. On the other side lay things beyond her keen, beyond the keen of everyone she knew. Not her father, not the professors, not even Ozpin could possibly be prepared for what was on the other side. One more time, she took in a breath of Cimmerian air, and forced herself to step into the puddle of glowing water.

For a moment, she thought she... was...

... _Moving_...

...And a few seconds later, she stepped out the other side. At once all of her senses were assaulted; glaring lights of several colors from above hit her eyes, scents of things she couldn't begin to identify filled her nose. And all around her was a cacophony of noise. A blaring alarm, white noise from innumerable machines, and many, many voices. It took her a moment to adjust to the pandemonium, noting after a second the alarm at least had cut off. Behind her the glowing puddle of the Stargate cut out, vanishing with an electric crackle.

00000

...

00000

 **A/N: I'll be honest, I f***ing hate this chapter. It took too long to do and is NOT up to my usual standard. KisaragiKei remedied it, but this is still terrible. Hopefully future chapters are better than this piece of s***.**

 _ **BETA A/N: I kinda hate as well. It's not up to the quality I usually see you write at. PS: I honesty didn't do much. As far as I was concerned; I simply acted like one of those "holier then thou" critics. Even if they are asses, they know some of their stuff. :3**_


	6. To Earth

**A/N: Nope, this is still ongoing. Not dropped. Not on hiatus. For all those interested still, I have nothing but gratitude for you.**

 _ **B/N: Bwahahahaha. Not as bad as Me!**_

00000

Six seconds and an unimaginable distance later, Ruby took a deep breath. Cimmeria was weird on its own, but she would be hard pressed to say it was unpleasant. Other than the rustic smells of animals and the less than stellar hygiene, it had the type of purity more in line with the deep forest, far away from civilization. Blake would probably offer some flowery line about the place like 'this is what the world could have been like, before man and the Grimm.'

It took her about three seconds to decide Earth was not like Cimmeria, at all.

The room she found herself in was large, covered in grey concrete everywhere. There were two massive doorways on opposite sides of the room which had thick metal linings, reminding her of a vault. Facing her was a set of windows, with more large slabs of metal hanging above them. Through the glass she could see a number of people bustling around; she had a good guess what they were working on. Leading up to the Stargate was a long metal ramp.

"Okay, this is different." Weiss murmured from beside her. Even though she went through several seconds before Ruby, the heiress was evidently in no better shape than her.

There were a number of lights scattered around as well, providing more than enough light. Though dimmer than the sun from a moment ago, they were bright enough to let her see exactly who was in the uncomfortably bare room too. Most obvious were over a dozen men arrayed in view of the gate; these ones were wearing multicolored splotched green uniforms rather than Jaune's basic outfit, or at least she thought it was basic. All of them were covered in gear, toting fearsome looking weapons pointed in her direction. Ruby gulped, despite knowing she could probably run circles around them.

When she glanced to her sides, her friends were in the same state as her, looking around in wary awe. When Jaune met her gaze, he sent her a sympathetic look.

"Gate room security. Don't worry, they're always jumpy." he quietly explained. Somehow, Ruby was not reassured at all.

Nevertheless when he began to stroll down the ramp, she trotted after him with the others in her wake. Glancing around, she saw several other things which pecked at her nervousness; primarily the two enormous guns which wouldn't look out of place on a Paladin situated on each side of the ramp, manned by more of the Earther soldiers and aimed towards the vanished puddle. She had the uneasy feeling if something came through that was not strictly allowed to do so, it would not get a warm reception. Whatever checklist they used, the five Remnant natives apparently passed it since in the next few seconds, the soldiers began to file away out of the room.

"Heads up." Yang said softly from behind Ruby, bumping her elbow into the smaller girls back. She stopped looking for the ceiling to focus ahead, seeing at once why the blonde nudged her.

Standing off to the side of the ramp were two people she recognized from the village: Major Smith and a blank faced lackey, sans weapons and equipment. The rest of the soldiers were leaving, save for a couple of permanent guards. He stayed in place with his arms clasped behind his back, waiting for them.

The older man affixed Jaune with a stern look while tracking him down to the ground. "You're five minutes late."

"Lost track of time sir." Jaune replied, tone clipped. Risking a peek, she saw the same shift in him as back on Cimmeria; when she wasn't looking, her friend was replaced by an hard faced stranger.

Major Smith gave a long look at him, not so much as flicking his eyes to the gathered girls. Many nervous moments later, whatever it was broke and he sighed.

"Go get yourself cleaned up, then get to the conference room." he ordered blandly.

"Understood." Jaune replied, giving a curt salute to the older man. The officer didn't deign himself with speaking again, gesturing his head to the large door on the left. He strolled away, but once he was behind the man's back he quickly twisted around to offer a smile at the girls before walking out of sight. Ruby met his eyes, but she couldn't return the smile.

"Alright, time for the hard part." Major Smith mumbled. The lackey with a patch on his breast pocket that said 'Barnes', nodded in sympathy. When he looked to the arrivals, he saw them starting to glance around. "Welcome to Stargate Command. Now, I have to ask you to relinquish your weapons."

The four students, who had each taken a curious peek at their new surroundings, immediately snapped to him with wide eyes.

"Say what?" Yang exclaimed first, features wrinkling while she recoiled in surprise. Both Ruby and Weiss exchanged a look before glancing back at him, the former tentatively reaching around her back for the reassuring weight of her treasured scythe.

"Why exactly?" Blake worriedly inquired, cringing as she looked ready to bolt.

"Protocol ma'am." the Earther officer spoke, his own posture and tone unchanging.

Weiss sucked in a breath through clenched teeth, cringing.

"You do this for everyone who comes here?" she asked carefully, forcing herself to stay in a dignified stance.

"Yes ma'am. If you're worried about safety, this facility is the sixth or seventh most secure location on the planet." Major Smith answered flatly.

The girls looked at each other, their level of unease at the request varying. Ruby could see why the officer wanted to disarm them, considering where and how they got there. It didn't make her feel any better. Blake took a deep breath, looking to Weiss. Neither looked particularly happy, which was calm compared to Ruby and Yang.

"We're guests here. Their home, their rules." the faunus said lowly, sighing.

"If this is how it has to be." said a quiet Weiss, partly to herself. Ruby was wincing, but she saw what needed to happen. Yang cringed as she looked to each of them for some kind of affirmation. When the two swordswomen hesitantly began to reach to their sides, she sputtered out a sigh.

Weiss unclasped Myrtenaster from her belt entirely with its several cartridges of Dust, probably guessing the man would want those too. Blake slung Gambol Shroud from her back, being careful with its edges as she maneuvered it to her hands. Yang unlatched the left gauntlet of Ember Celicia first, for a moment struggling to accomplish the task with her missing fingers. A hesitant offer of assistance from Blake was rebuffed with nothing more than a curt look.

For Ruby, unslinging Crescent Rose from her back was easy. The hard part came from handing the weapon she built herself over to a stranger. She consoled herself by recalling that Jaune, despite his numerous faults, was a good judge of character. He trusted these people; the very least she could do was give them the benefit of the doubt.

Forcing the anxiety aside, she carefully held Crescent Rose out to Major Smith. Rather than accepting the weapon she playfully called her sweetheart, he gestured to the man beside him. Barnes reached over to take the sling from her, blinking as its not inconsiderable weight settled onto his forearm. He needed a moment to adjust the sling before nodding to the others.

Weiss frowned when she handed over Myrtenaster, watching him carefully while he fumbled the blade under his arm. "You better be careful with that."

"Yes ma'am." Barnes replied automatically, turning to Blake when it was in a good spot. She showed plenty of reservation at handing over Gambol Shroud, fingers slightly trembling before and after the sword left her grip.

Once both gauntlets of Ember Celicia were free, Yang held the pair by via pinching the wrist clamps. She began to stretch her arm to the overburdened soldier, but halfway over she stopped and yanked it back. "All weapons?"

"Yes ma'am." Major Smith said dryly, both his pose and his tone somehow unchanged throughout the whole ordeal. Then again, he was doing little compared to his subordinate.

Yang had an evasive look on her face, which her friends responded to with puzzlement. It grew worse when she bent over, going to her boot to fumble with something around her ankle. The apex of confusion was reached when she stood back up with a thin black sheath in her free hand. Ruby blinked, at a loss for words.

"Since when do you carry a knife?" Blake questioned in her stead, her bow unconsciously flicking. Yang opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly changed her mind and closed it, finally settling on a short sigh. The hand holding the small blade wiggled, perhaps out of nervousness.

"Its... look, its a good habit to have a knife okay? If I need to scrape off tree bark or pop open a soda can or something?" she spoke rapidly, her blonde hair tumbling while she turned to each of them.

"Sodas have tabs." Weiss pointed out.

Yang groaned while her eyes rolled, sucking in a breath through her clenched teeth. "You get what I mean."

"I… guess?" Ruby thought aloud, frowning. The discomfort at being unarmed was overshadowed by this new revelation, and she internally questioned how long her sister had been carrying a knife around. By the look of the sheath it was a simple utility blade, available virtually anywhere in the Four Kingdoms for a few lien. Her explanation made sense, except for its location on her ankle.

 _Maybe its because..._ Ruby chased the thought away to focus on the present.

Rather than continuing Yang threw her hands out to Barnes, who paled at the sight of even more stuff to carry. Major Smith sighed and turned around, gesturing for one of the guards to come closer. Approaching them, the soldier slung his large black rifle around his back in order to carefully take Ember Celicia and the knife from the blonde, gingerly holding each of them in his grip. When a weapon laden Barnes began to walk away to the same exit Jaune vanished to, he followed after him.

"Airman." Major Smith spoke, stopping the guard in his tracks and causing him to look around nervously. "I don't need to tell you to be careful with those." He nodded quickly and powered after Barnes, who had gained a lot of ground on him. That accomplished, Major Smith turned back to the girls with something hinting at relief.

"Now that this whole drama is taken care off, would you please follow me? General Hammond would like a word with you." he finished, finally unclasping his hands from behind his back to wave them on.

Ruby took a breath to steady her nerves, aware of her friends psyching themselves up as well. "Lead the way."

Major Smith turned to walk in what was clearly a march, stomping off to the same door as the others. While she powered after him, Ruby glanced to the right side of the room and imagined where it lead to. Behind her Yang, Blake, and Weiss followed but not quite in single file. Only the last kept a straight walk, though even she couldn't stop herself from looking around this very different place.

Out of the room itself, there was a large hallway which kept the same style at the bereft room. Above the quintet, a dozen lines of exposed piping, wires, and numerous lights lined the ceiling to parts unknown. Everywhere there were signs, warnings, and reminders for things a quick glance failed to understand. Unconsciously Ruby's breathing picked up; she wasn't claustrophobic by any means, but the walls seemed to press down on her. Checking her friends, they looked to be having the same problem, albeit not as badly. Weiss appeared to be the best off, perhaps relying on her etiquette filled upbringing to keep herself together.

In the halls of Stargate Command were a number of people going to and fro. Some wore the same uniforms as Major Smith, a few had lab coats, and a rare few had on what probably passed for normal clothes on this world. Two men came out from around a corner to brush by the soldier, wearing camouflage patterned uniforms complete with blue berets which were similar but clearly different from the others. When they walked by her heading in the direction of the gate room, she heard a snatch of their conversation. Whatever it was they were saying, she didn't understand a word of it. One suddenly broke out laughing, which the other replied to in a friendly tone. Ruby though she heard a snort from Major Smith, but she wasn't sure.

"What'd you call that guy back there?" Yang asked from immediately behind her, alternating between keeping her gaze forward and looking around the facility with an amazed eye.

"Airman. A lot of the people here are United States Air Force, including most of the security personnel. You guys have a military back home?" Major Smith leaned over his shoulder to speak, his pace unchanging.

"Uh, yeah." Blake said ahead of Ruby, frowning at something while a few passerby's gave them strange looks. Beside her Weiss abandoned her own sightseeing to focus on the conversation, guessing where it was going.

"Its the equivalent of a private in other branches. Arc is a senior airman, rank is basically a corporal. Before you ask, there's no real difference in the command structure." he explained, sounding bored. Ruby opened her mouth to ask him about Jaune, but he interrupted her just before she started to speak. "I'm sure you have a great number of questions, and I'll gladly play Q&A with you. Later." he concluded with a tone of finality.

Closing her mouth, Ruby frowned. She had so many questions about everything; him, the Air Force, Earth, this place, Jaune, and many, many more. It was understandable why he couldn't answer anything more than basics for the time being, but it didn't improve her mood any-

"Wait, hold up." Yang interrupted, pausing in the middle of the floor.

Ruby reacted first by half tripping over her own feet, coming close to falling over before righting herself and twisting around. Weiss looked off balance while she looked to the blonde questionably, and Blake was giving her an irritated stare while somehow avoiding any of their missteps. Peering to Major Smith, Ruby saw him standing still, for the moment facing forward. She thought she saw him take a breath before turning around with what she assumed was his usual blank expression.

"What is it?"

"You said Air Force. Like, you know, flying?" Yang questioned carefully, making several little waves with her hands in the air. A lone man in a long white coat passed them by, looking to her strangely until he was out of sight.

"Its what the name implies, yes." was Major Smith's blank reply.

"Since you're Jaune's boss, commander, whatever." she waved away whatever protest he may have had in store. "This means he is too, right?"

"What're you getting at?" Blake frowned at whatever her friend could be thinking, crossing her arms in the process.

Major Smith frowned too, joining the girls. "That's right."

Ruby looked at Yang quizzically, raising an eyebrow at whatever was going through her head.

"So… Jaune's…" she couldn't finish. Instead she clasped both hands over her mouth, her entire body rippling. It took Ruby a second to figure out she was trying not to laugh, and failing. Blake and Weiss exchanged a confused glance.

Sensing eyes, Ruby noticed Major Smith giving her an inquiring look. It was the same kind a professor gave her when she did something she wasn't strictly allowed to do. "Could you please explain to me what's going on?"

Her confused shrug elicited a deeper frown from the man. "I dunno what she's talking about either."

"Just, j-just." Yang fought through the snickers, holding one hand over her mouth in a vain attempt to stop giggling. "Wow. Air Force." she shook her head bemusedly.

"You lost me." Weiss stated flatly, frowning first at the blonde for the bout of apparent madness, then at Ruby for failing to give a good explanation.

"Oh c'mon." Yang rolled her eyes. "Ruby, don't tell me you don't remember how you two met in the first place?"

Ruby wrinkled her brow, wondering what she was getting at. "Um, you mean the airship on the way to Beacon?"

"Yeah. The airship. Go on." she pressed with a smirk.

"He, uh." she glanced at Major Smith, who offered no help. Neither the faunus nor the heiress were much assistance either. "He threw up... why are you laughing then?"

Suppressing a snicker, the brawler smirked at the Earther. "Jaune gets airsick at the drop of a hat. Out of all people he could've joined up with, he picked the flying experts." she shook her head in bemusement, sniggering.

Ruby saw Major Smith's reaction to her reason, or lack thereof.

"Arc gets queasy on flights. But he's only vomited once on my watch, and that was because of food poisoning." he explained coolly, showing less emotion than a combat android.

Again the four pairs of eyes went to him, Weiss especially looking disturbed. Yang's half snicker went on for several more seconds, trailing off at the same speed as her fading smile. She blinked once more, mouth slightly agape as she stared at him.

"You... um..." she tried to say, unable to get further. Her hands slowly dropped in quiet shame.

"What did you guys put him through?" Ruby questioned darkly. For the moment, her unsettled curiosity won out over the distrust she felt for the man.

Major Smith took a deep breath. The fortiesh man swept his gaze around, as if he was searching for someone. Nodding in apparent satisfaction, he rolled his neck around with a quiet sigh. Before Ruby's eyes, the hardness he showed since she first saw him seemed to leak away. Not much, but enough to make him look much more human.

"You don't like me. I get it, okay?" she opened her mouth to protest, but he continued before she could speak. "He's told me a lot about his home, what its like there. You guys value warriors a lot to keep the Grimm away. A formal military is at best a necessary evil." he quietly explained. Even his tone was different, lacking the clipped formality he always seemed to have. Ruby chanced a peek at Weiss, who gulped nervously from him hitting closer to home than he realized.

"Arc, Jaune." he shook his head at some internal conflict. "I've been serving for almost twenty years now, survived the pararescue course after failing twice, and I still have no idea whats going to happen every time I step through the gate. Jaune had six months to learn what took me a decade to figure out, the minimum before anyone even glanced at my file. The first time I met him, I didn't think he could handle it. I've never been more wrong."

Yang was cringing, her posture looking like she was expecting a punch she knew she deserved. Ruby hardly noticed; her eyes were wide open on the Earther soldier while he spoke, ignoring her sister's self imposed shame or her friends' amazed reactions at the short tale. The thought crossed her mind he was lying, or at least exaggerating.

"He's not perfect, no one is. Still, Jaune is a good kid. I think he would've gone far if he was still back at Beacon with you guys." he remarked.

"Um..." Yang got out, shrinking back when his eyes flicked to her.

"He's saved my life, twice. Whatever you think of him, just know he has guts." Major Smith finished quietly. He sighed once more, his body language returning to the steel like disposition from earlier. "One thing though, before we proceed."

"Uh, yes?" Ruby hesitantly replied, sparing a glance at her anxious friends. Yang looked like she wanted to go hide under a rock for a long while, or take the punch to get it over with.

"The entrance test to get into your academy. Was there really a giant spring to fling you into the woods?" he unexpectedly questioned. She blinked, features wrinkling in confusion.

"...Yeah...?" she slowly answered.

"Yes, that's normal. I flew maybe two hundred meters myself, what about you?" Weiss turned to Blake for her question.

"Not entirely sure, but it was a couple hundred meters too, at least." she shrugged off, going back to the Earther officer. While outwardly nothing about him had changed, there was a noticeable difference in his eyes.

"I always thought he was making that part up." he said softly, lightly shaking his head before straightening back up. "We're at fashionably late that this point. Lets not make it excessive." he told them, turning back around to power off.

Seeing Yang still cringing at herself, Ruby quietly sighed and looked to Blake. The faunus huffed as well and grabbed her bicep, yanking her along. The blonde's sudden unease at having her right arm taken hold of was enough to snap her out of her fugue, and she was moving under her own power again once she jerked the limb back.

Not a minute later they came to a set of stairs, which were much darker than the rest of the cramped hallways. The bright source of light at the other end showed an outline, but little else. Rather than proceeding Major Smith stopped by the side of the stairs, clasping his hands behind his back before glancing to them expectantly.

"You're not coming with us?" Weiss asked him with a curious expression.

"Not my place. I'll send Jaune up when he drops by." he answered blandly.

Ruby took a quick breath, resisting the impulse to criticize the lowered air quality. "Thank you."

"Its what I do ma'am." he replied, one hand leaving his back to wave them onwards.

Glancing up the steps, Ruby steadied herself. Before the doubts could cloud her mind, she powered up the stairs with her team close by. Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw Blake shudder at the cramped walkway, her bow flicking at something. If she wanted to Ruby could have reached the top step in a second using her semblance, but she felt it would be more polite to walk. It was only a short set of stairs anyway.

Imagining some grandiose meeting place at the end, Ruby felt let down by the sight of an austere conference room which possessed only a single large table. It reminded her of some boardroom, with its wooden furniture and few sets of generic yet interesting pictures hanging from the walls. Then again, while she had seen very little of Stargate Command, they seemed to tend more towards plain functionality than showmanship. Perhaps it was a cultural thing, she didn't know.

She had less than two seconds to examine the room, noticing a number of people already present. Then a blur rushed out, hitting her and wrapping around her torso with the force of a constricting King Taijitu. Too stunned to react, Ruby found herself caught in a powerful and ever tightening grip. Her eyes felt like they were bulging out of her head, which was nothing compared to her protesting ribcage. All she could think of was who was trying to crush her, and why her wide eyed friends weren't doing anything to save her.

" _Ohmygoditsreallyyou_!"

Despite being crushed to death Ruby had to blink, what little air left in her lungs exiting as a pained squeak. Mercifully the powerful arms encircling her fell away as fast as they appeared, both of her hands slapping down hard on her shoulders instead. It gave her a perfect view of an excited grinning girl she thought long gone.

"Nora?" Ruby couldn't say anything more concrete than that, she was too amazed to do much of anything else. The bubbly girl looked mostly like how she remembered; her hair being a bit longer was the only visible difference she saw. Giggling just like how she used to, Nora Valkyrie clapped her longtime friend on the shoulder hard enough to half stagger her.

"I...I...wow." Yang was at a loss as well, her own wide eyes roaming up and down the orange haired girl's form, now a head taller than before. Weiss numbly nodded in agreement. Blake was the only one able to tear her eyes off of her, becoming transfixed by something else entirely.

"You're telling me! Its been way too long!" the words tumbled from her mouth in a barely legible stream. A cleared throat made her suddenly pick up, dragging one of her hands off Ruby's shoulder to push her farther into the room to see two others, who had taken the opportunity to rise from their chairs and approach.

The tiny smile the sable haired young man in front of her offered seemed inconsequential, but she knew it spoke volumes about his feelings. "Almost didn't believe it, hey." he said quietly, his crossed arms unfolding.

"Ren." Ruby spoke breathlessly, eyes wide.

"You're...um." Blake gulped instead of speaking more.

Lie Ren turned the small smile her way, taking in their appearances just as they were taking in his. His features were sharper than before, maturation affecting him greater than the others. While far taller than before, his hair was oddly shorter, looking to be at the same length as Jaune and Nora's. When he turned to someone else, Ruby saw a tiny ponytail on the back of his head. Most reliving to her, the magenta stripe by his forehead was still there, albeit shorter.

Ruby's gaze inexorably flickered over to the last one standing beside Ren, who offered a shy smile and a small wave which belied her excitement. "Pyrrha."

"Hi Ruby. Um, its been a while." Pyrrha Nikos greeted reservedly, unmindful of how massive of an understatement it was.

Out of the four members of JNPR, Pyrrha showed the greatest change. Her long mane of red hair was a shadow of its former self, now confined to a set of bangs and a ponytail a little longer than Ren's. Her features appeared more open than before, seemingly more relaxed than years ago. It took Ruby a moment to realize that her circlet, which she wore almost all the time back at Beacon, was missing. On top of that, like the others she was taller. Idly Ruby wondered what the Earthers had been feeding the missing team to make them grow so much.

"I...don't know what to say." Ruby admitted, looking over them. Ren shrugged noncommittally.

"Its okay. Its good to see you guys." Pyrrha finished for him, in time for Nora to give another staggering clap on her back before turning to her fresh victims. Victims who were happy yet distinctly unsettled at the sight before them.

Each one wore the same outfit: a thick green jacket which was currently unzipped, with patches on the sleeves and chest along with several pockets. Black shirts were visible underneath. Below they had green fatigue pants which ended at polished black boots. The only thing the uniforms were missing were black vests and weapons.

They were just like Jaune.

"You're...looking well." Weiss hesitantly complimented, unable to look away from them.

Nora's smile faded instantly into puzzlement before her eyes widened in understanding, making a tiny "ah" noise and chuckling bashfully. "Oh, the outfit. I would've changed into something better, but didn't have time." she explained rapidly, shrugging in good nature. Blake watched her mutedly.

"Sorry." Pyrrha averted her eyes for a second, smiling nervously while she absently moved a bang out of her eyes. "I just got back a little bit ago."

"From, um, where?" Weiss stepped around the others to walk over her way, looking the redhead over. To Ruby, looked unsure of whether she should be happy or disturbed.

"P4X-351. It wasn't exactly a... pleasant place." Pyrrha hesitated on her wording, looking upwards for a moment in memory. Then the red toned girl got a whiff of the unmistakable scent of sweat from her.

"Pee-four... what?" Blake wrinkled her brow in confusion.

"Another world?" Weiss inquired, wrinkling in a strange blend of emotions.

"Yeah. The place was, well, baking hot." she admitted with a small shrug.

"Enough for now." Ren interrupted her before she could proceed further, "How are you guys?"

"I'm well. Yeah, well. How about you?" Yang nodded while she spoke, adopting a smile which wouldn't fool anyone.

"Good. Keeping busy, you know." Nora piped up genially with a shrug, an identical look on her own features.

Ruby took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts. The two teams were freely mingling, yet an uncomfortable silence had descended over the seven. Yang looked to one of the pictures on the wall instead of talking further, while Ren brought up a fist to his mouth to clear his throat. Nora still beamed at her friends, but it didn't take a genius to see it was plainly forced. Neither Weiss nor Blake found anything to say, the latter shuffling her feet to stay busy.

All of it changed when a new voice from behind the changed trio commented. "This got awkward in a hurry."

Ruby snapped her head to the direction of the speaker, catching a noticeable flash over Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora. In the split second look, she saw a glint of the same change which now affected Jaune. Whoever it was that spoke, he was their commander. Rolling the term over in her mind, she put aside any innocent curiosity she had. Even if the sight of him caught her off guard.

It wasn't his appearance which did it; a nondescript older man well in his late forties with greying hair, casually leaning back in the table chair. He was clad in a similar uniform as her missing friends, though lacking a green jacket. A pen was in his hands, and he fiddled with it while peering her way. The look on his face was one of either boredom or expectation, she couldn't tell. What confused her was the lack of the same steely gaze found on practically every Earther soldier she encountered thus far.

"Who are you?" she questioned him directly.

Beside her Ren cleared his throat once again, suddenly nervous. Out of the corner of her eye Ruby saw her team move away from the stairwell, and the present members of her formerly close knit companions stand up straighter. Each one, even Nora, now looked quietly anxious. The unease in her team only grew.

"You first." the man quipped back.

"I asked you already." Ruby countered. The pen in his hands froze, his brow rising a centimeter.

"Good point." he conceded. He glanced to the rest of his end of the table, leading her to notice three others she overlooked.

There was a tall man with dark skin who looked to be in his early forties, sitting beside the greying man with his hands clasped to a paper on the table surface. Her gaze was drawn to a strange golden emblem on his bald forehead which faintly glinted in the artificial light. Unlike the first, there was a blank frown on his face, revealing nothing of his thoughts as he read whatever it had written. Unlike the others, he was quite large in comparison, perhaps bigger than even Yatsuhashi.

On the other side there were two others occupied with a sheaf of papers in front of them, a man and a woman. Both had on similar uniforms as the others, complete with the jackets. The latter looked to be in her thirties, with short blonde hair and fair skin. The former man was a similar age, with short brown hair and glasses. He too was rifling through the papers in front if him, whatever was on it absorbing all his attention. At least until the first man tapped the table with the pen, causing both to look up with some surprise. Instead of answering he nodded his head to the other end of the table before leaning further back in the chair, enough to make the front legs leave the floor.

"To answer your question, I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill of the US Air Force. Yourself?" he greeted her, completely at ease.

"Um, I'm Ruby Rose, of Beacon." thinking for a second, she added, "From Remnant."

He showed nothing of his feelings except for a level of interest. "Both red."

"Fits the naming conventions." the glasses man added absently, flicking to the paper for a second.

"Right right." he glanced to the man. "How'd you know that?"

"Its in the report in front of you Jack." said the bespectacled man, looking up from his papers to sit up straight.

"Huh." Blake grunted, crossing her arms. When Ruby peeked at the others, she saw all three of them looking shuffling in place, politely embarrassed.

"He's..." she started.

"Our boss, yes." Nora confirmed resignedly.

"Huh." Yang agreed with the faunus, raising a brow. They along with Ruby turned an eye to Weiss, silently inquisitive.

"Um, Colonel is a high rank. In Atlas they normally lead regiments, but its not unheard of for them to do things on their own." she answered softly, even though the Earthers could likely hear them.

O'Neill clapped his hands together. "So, anyone besides me feel like introducing themselves?" he turned to the others, idly spinning in his chair.

"I was waiting on Hammond sir." the woman answered, in the next moment letting the paper she was reading fall back to the table. "But I guess there's no harm in doing it now."

"It would be most efficient now rather than later." the dark skinned man rumbled with a basso voice, lowering his own paper. Like the glasses wearing man, the wokan gave the newcomers a welcoming look.

While the remaining members of JNPR shuffled off to the side looking all apologetic, Ruby swallowed her unease to carefully walk over. In response one by one the men and woman began to examine the new arrivals, each one subtly different in how they did it. The woman was at ease, yet she could see the discipline in her body language. In contrast the bespectacled man was almost lackadaisical, though not to the extreme as O'Neill. The emblemed man simply stared their way, every move deliberate.

"So Miss Rose and company, this is SG-1. Guys?" O'Neill turned to the others expectantly.

"Right. I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson. Archeologist." the glasses man introduced simply, giving a perfunctory nod their way while stuffing his hands into his elbows and leaning back as well.

"Major Samantha Carter, United States Air Force. You can call me Carter if you want." the blonde woman greeted, her eyes going to the paper for a second before tenting her fingers.

"I am Teal'c." the dark skinned man rumbled in monotone; internally Ruby wondered if he were an android mocked up as a human. The thought inevitably lead to Penny-

The first bit clicked. She remembered Jaune mentioning something about an SG-7, how he was assigned to them. She glanced to the nearest of her changed friends, Nora in this case. The now unexpectedly reserved girl was just in the right position for her to see the patch on her shoulder; it had a stitched 15 in the same style as his. She had little doubt Ren and Pyrrha had similar ones on their shoulders. Ruby felt like asking how the team ranking system worked, but there were more pressing concerns at the moment.

First up was her sister toeing around her to get a look at this SG-1, glancing questionably at Ren. He shrugged sheepishly before she turned back to them and planted her bare hands on her hips. "Hi. I'm Yang Xiao Long."

Daniel Jackson gave her a funny look. "Huh, you don't look..." he stopped to clear his throat. "Well, I'm sure you've gotten this a lot already, but welcome to Earth."

"Right." Ruby spoke, steadying herself and seeing an encouraging look from Pyrrha. "These are my friends, Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee." she introduced, waving to the other two girls. They gave weak waves back, the former doing her best to meet their eyes.

"Colorful group you got there. Dare I say, rainbowish." O'Neill commented as he waved a pointed finger their way and then back again.

"Its in the report Colonel." Carter pointed out, making him shrug.

"Always with the reports." he muttered disdainfully. "Anyways, welcome. If you want to take a seat." Immediately he looked to the silent trio "This means you too."

"Yes sir-" Nora caught herself, gulping nervously when she received several questioning looks from the other girls.

She settled for flopping into the nearest chair, while Pyrrha quickly did the same. Ren gestured for the others to do so as well before sitting himself. On the opposite side of the table Blake took a deep breath while she pulled up a seat, while Yang slumped into an open chair easily. Weiss carefully down, taking a second to adjust herself.

"So, let the barrage of questions begin." O'Neill invited of them, lackadaisically waving an arm in the direction of the girls.

"We are supposed to wait for General Hammond, O'Neill." Teal'c rumbled, clasping his hands in the space in front of him like nothing happened.

"I meant them actually. You girls probably want to know about everything around here, don't you?" he rhetorically asked them while leaning back once more.

Carter cleared her throat. "That could take days sir."

"Won't hurt to get the basics." Jackson added, turning to the girls. Idly he adjusted his glasses. "So, how can we help you?"

"Well," Blake was the first to speak, briefly sharing a look with the others. Upon seeing no objection she proceeded. "Where are we exactly? I mean, I know we're on Earth." she corrected.

A slight movement from the opposite side of the table caught Ruby's attention. While Ren and Pyrrha looked relatively at ease, Nora was half fidgeting in her chair. The movement caught the eye of Jackson, who turned to her expectantly. He shrugged.

"Why not I guess." he said softly, turning back to the paper for a moment. O'Neill nodded approvingly.

"This place?" Nora began, giving a tiny wave to the ceiling. "Cheyenne Mountain."

Ren quietly coughed. "Its a facility," his features flickered at seeing the girls's unenthused reaction to his wording, "Built into a mountain. For that." he finished by jerking a thumb to the wall behind him, to a set of windows. Outside, the top edge of the Stargate was barely visible.

"Explains a lot." Yang said softly, frowning yet nodding. She glanced to the ceiling, probably thinking of the amount of ground between her and the sky. An idea Ruby tried not to dwell on.

Weiss leaned forward onto the table, getting a better look at SG-1. "What're those papers?"

"Reports of, well, us." Pyrrha offered, prompting no less than three raised eyebrows, save only a frowning Weiss. "Biographies, notes, physical data, everything they took down when he got here."

"Everything." Yang noted darkly.

"Its about a week's worth of interviews and medical checkups condensed into a ten page document. Nothing invasive." she corrected with a short move of her palms to placate them.

"Nothing interesting either." Nora mumbled.

"And you guys." Weiss directed at SG-1. "Are doing what with those?"

"Refresher for the interview. Study crunching if you want to look at it like that." O'Neill answered, idly flipping pages of his own report. He gave the impression of someone steadfastly pretending to study his schoolwork rather than actually doing it.

 _Reminds me of Uncle Qrow_ , Ruby thought. She wasn't sure why, this man and her uncle looked like they had nothing in common.

"Interview?" Blake questioned guardedly, casting an uncomfortable look towards the trio.

"I promise, its normal. What's the situation back home, reason for traveling, so on." Pyrrha explained casually, shrugging to loosen up.

In contrast Ren frowned and rested his hands on the table, giving them a thoughtful look. "Speaking of which, how exactly did you guys find Remnant's gate? It was hidden in a remote cave when we found it."

The four quietly squirmed, shifting eyes away. Neither Ruby nor Weiss wanted to explain the story, though they both knew it was only a matter of time. Time which came sooner than anticipated.

From the same stairwell they came from Blake turned her head, hearing footsteps well before the others. Ruby learned long ago how to read her body language, so when she stiffened up the red toned girl reacted as well. It gave her plenty of time to see how all three of her friends became alert, emotions vanishing like a switch. In contrast SG-1 didn't seem to do much beyond looking to the entranceway.

"Must be Hammond." O'Neill commented, a heartbeat before the man himself strolled into the room.

When she heard General, she imagined someone like Ironwood; tall, imposing, and icily cold. The sight of an older man in a slightly more flashy version of the standard uniform in this place didn't fit her vision. There were plenty of tabs on his shoulders and chest, far fewer than she would've expected. His bald head reflected some light, while his own face was admittedly sharp.

"At ease." he commanded automatically the moment he stepped through, strolling to the other side of the table. The way he spoke was strange, a weird twang to his speech that was unlike any accent she ever heard before.

His body language however was as clear as day; he walked with purpose, authority radiating off him so thickly even Aura stunted people could feel it. General Hammond may not have looked like a general to her, but he certainly acted like one. Caught up in observing him, she didn't register the presence of someone behind the man until he took the last seat on the opposite side of the table. A flash of surprise was muted when she saw a tiny smile on Jaune adjusting himself.

Hammond took the lone chair at the head of the table, the eyes of all twelve people present locked on him. No one spoke until he was seated and had his clasped hands in front of him.

"Greetings. I'm General Hammond, I'm in charge of the Stargate Program here on Earth." he greeted perfunctorily. "Given the unusual circumstances here, I'm going to dispense with the formalities and get down to business. Now please, I'd like you to tell me where, how, and why you rediscovered your world's gate."

00000

 **A/N: So, a month. And I cut it off right in the middle of a scene. Covering maybe ten to fifteen minutes of questionably in-character interactions. No action, no real plot moving, just yap yap yap. Why are you people interested in this?**

 _ **B/N: It's Fun.**_

 **CrazedGammaMan1721 and TheDoctor1998, the omakes I promised you are going to have to wait a bit. I'm awful with puns. Still, thank you.**


	7. Somewhere new pt1

**A/N: So...it seems I move at the speed of a glacier. Nice. Again, thanks to KisaragiKei for proofing, and thanks to all y'all who stuck around**.

00000

Out of the four members of Team RWBY, Weiss was taking the strange new reality of theirs in stride. To be more precise, she was doing a far better job of hiding her bewilderment. Not because she was understanding everything, far from it. The white toned girl was dumbfounded at everything she saw, from the people, to the surroundings, even the decor. It was all different from what she was used to.

Then she corrected herself; nothing she saw was truly _unfamiliar_. All of it was like Remnant, but as if it were viewed through a warped mirror. There were any number of things which she could recognize at a glance, such as an unmistakable whiff of pizza coming from a door she passed. If she had time to process everything, she might have begun to wonder at the uncanny similarities, perhaps be interested enough in finding out what matched and what didn't.

The cardinal problem for Weiss, for her entire team she assumed, there just wasn't time. Again and again something entirely new came along to shake up her world like a cheap Atlesian snow globe, and she had just begun to process it when something new smacked her in the face and made her start over. No small amount of frustration was building up inside her at the constant string of events. That wasn't factoring in the supposed cause of the strange dream which brought her here in the first place, according to the Earthers anyway.

It didn't help that her friends scattered once Hammond dismissed the briefing, going every which way. Ruby and Yang went with Nora and Ren to the armory ( _where else_ , she reflected wryly), Pyrrha left for a needed shower, Blake sat down in the conference room with Dr. Jackson and Teal'c to begin a polite interrogation session on what things were like here, and Jaune had left with O'Neill to Hammond's office with nary a word of explanation. Weiss herself was taken by Major Carter to the dialing computer to figure out how to return home.

When the woman lead her into the gate control room, she realized it happened yet again. The poorly lit room felt far smaller than what it was, and it wasn't very spacious to begin with. Banks of noisy computers were everywhere, with numerous screens showing incomprehensible information to whoever dared look at them. Several technicians were at work on their own tasks, while a few guards stood at attention.

Yet despite the bulk and apparent prowess, the machines didn't seem too advanced. There wasn't a single hologram in sight, the closest thing to portable she observed was a flimsy laptop the size of a textbook, and they seemed to rely on physical interface widgets rather than touch screens. Weiss didn't take Tech History, but she saw enough of Blake's work to recognize most of what she saw was hopelessly outdated.

"This...this is the control system." she said slowly, looking to the blonde woman for affirmation. Major Carter, though she insisted on just Carter, nodded with a small shrug.

"It doesn't look like much I know, but our dialing computer really is a feat of engineering." she answered easily, mistaking her disbelief for awe.

For people who were from her point of view literally _aliens_ ,their equipment was, by her reasonably well informed observations, garbage.

"This way." Carter lead her to one set of terminals, situated right in front of the glass. Beyond it, Weiss spotted the Stargate they used to arrive here, only now there was a silver colored plate filling in the interior. She wondered why; wouldn't the watery bloom destroy it as it did for the stick on Cimmeria?

As occupied as her thoughts were, Weiss was far from blind. She spotted a bespectacled man clad in a uniform in front of a console, busy typing away on the primitive computer. Apparently sensing their movement, he turned away from the terminal to acknowledge them. She noticed he made no move to stand up.

"Major." he nodded deferentially. The blonde soldier held up a hand towards the girl behind her.

"Miss Schnee, this is Master Sergeant Walter Harriman. He's responsible for organizing all off world traffic through the gate." Carter introduced.

Without waiting for a cue, Weiss stuck out a flat hand to the soldier. He blinked in astonishment at her boldness, but after a hesitant moment he returned the gesture.

"Pleased to meet you Sergeant Harriman." she greeted, giving his hand exactly two measured swings before relaxing her grip. His own limp hand fell away, while he gave her a quizzical look.

"Uh, hi." he replied, frowning confusedly.

As much as Weiss hated her etiquette filled upbringing, she admitted the lessons hammered into her had their uses. There was no substitute for a good introduction, no matter where they were on the social ladder. She could attest to the fact by her own experiences, thinking of the initial meetings with Ruby and Blake.

A convenient bonus was her learning a bit more about this man. His grip was clammy with sweat, but there were bumps on his palm which spoke of faded calluses. Evidently he wasn't used to hard work, but wasn't a stranger to it either. Perhaps it was a worthless detail, but until she knew otherwise, she filed the information away.

"Okay, lets get started." Carter prompted. Weiss tracked the woman, wondering if she realized the point of the innocuous gesture.

Because of her attention, the white toned girl saw Carter discover something behind her almost immediately, and reacted by turning to the same direction. Who it was surprised her.

"Pyrrha?" The redhead stopped in place, evidently powering to their location a scant few seconds ago. Her entire posture shifted, turning into deferential respect.

"Major Carter." she spoke with a small nod, her right arm twitching upwards in an automatic effort. Only when her green eyes flickered to Weiss did she hesitate, pausing at the halfway point.

"Nikos." Carter nodded back, raising a brow at the aborted salute. It was that or her presence in the control room, but Weiss guessed was the first option.

Ruby wasn't the only one to notice the change in their missing friends, changes beyond what was immediately visible. Weiss saw a number of the same cues in Jaune, and now Pyrrha, as her sister Winter the last time she saw her. Her body language was exactly like what Atlesian troopers did when a superior officer was present.

"Ma'am, I... I wish to be present for the dialing procedure." Pyrrha said carefully, apparently mustering her nerves. She crossed her arms behind her back, more nervous now than any other time Weiss had ever seen.

A quiet feeling of unease filled the white toned girl when she glanced at the Earther, questioning whether she would agree or not. They seemed fairly casual about their operations, but she had no idea if they let someone as low ranking as her observe the procedure itself. Her muted dread was dispelled when Carter nodded easily.

"Of course." she agreed, waving her closer. Pyrrha took a breath, showing plain relief. It was certainly weird to see her loosen up, but considering that they had been essentially trapped for three years, it made sense.

Though Weiss was one of five people who knew Remnant's address and one of four who could tell the Earthers (why _she_ was the one stuck with the responsibility of getting home was a mystery), she decided to take a moment to speak to the redhead. Back at Beacon she wouldn't say they were friends, hardly more than passing acquaintances really. Nevertheless, she felt a friendly greeting was in order.

Gathering a polite smile once she was within arms reach, Weiss nodded at her. "Good to see you, you cleaned up-"

A whiff of sweat reached her nose, causing Weiss to pause. Pyrrha blinked and looked away, suddenly bashful. "Sorry. I was on my way to get a shower, but I wanted to see this."

"You know I would've shown you the address in a bit, right?" Carter asked her, crossing her own arms. The warrior turned soldier cleared her throat, mutedly embarrassed to the amazement of Weiss.

"Ma'am, its not how I pictured it, but I've been waiting for this day for a while. Forgive my excitement." she replied carefully. Glancing to the blonde, the white toned girl observed her thoughtful nod.

"Alright I suppose." she murmured, apparently dismissing the issue before turning back to the new arrival. "Now, if you would please pick out the glyphs for your address." she stepped aside, showing a screen filled with data. A step closer to it confirmed it had the same symbols as the altar-DHD she mentally corrected. The thought occurred to her these people were the ones who came up with the name.

After scanning through the assembled symbols, Weiss reached out to tap on the first of the glyphs Hjord showed her back on Cimmeria. To her confusion, nothing happened. Then she mentally kicked herself; there were no touchscreens here. For an idle second she speculated if they would try to make her a bargain for her scroll, then she pondered if JNPR still had theirs.

A new arrow shaped icon appeared on the screen, a flat two dimensional thing which moved over the glyph she touched. It blinked, and the glyph blacked out to reappear inside of a tiny box near the top of the display, the first in a row of six. Her curious gaze swiveled over to the sergeant, discovering one of his hands was on a tiny widget connected by a cord. When he moved his hand, the icon moved in the same direction.

"Alright, next?" Carter said, causing Weiss to quietly snort.

It felt like a game to her, tapping the screen again and again to watch the icon follow her directions. A childishly simple game, suited for toddlers. The fact that this was their only way back home was rubbing salt in the wound. It came as a relief to her when the sixth and last box was filled, completing the code she was taught a few hours earlier.

Carter looked over the collected symbols carefully. "Are you sure this is it?"

"Yes." Weiss replied.

"Absolutely?" she pressed.

"Yes." she repeated, an edge of irritation in her tone.

"Okay, take it away Walter." Carter nodded to the bespectacled man, who immediately went to work on his console.

After tapping several keys on a keyboard, a physical keyboard she noted, the inner ring of the Stargate began to spin. A number of new lights appeared in the gateroom, evidently announcing that the thing was being used. Weiss saw at once the process they were using was far slower than what the al-DHD did, taking easily twice as long as the ones on Cimmeria and Remnant. When the first of the glowing chevrons locked in place, Walter announced, "Chevron one encoded."

Seeing as she had a moment to burn, Weiss sneaked a glance at Pyrrha. She saw how the girl held herself, standing at attention in a ramrod posture with her arms at her side, incidentally giving her a good view of the patch on her jacket's shoulder. It was almost like Jaune's, but it had an emboldened 10 instead. Her eyes were focused solely on the display in front of her, with a faint expression of longing. The only real movement from her was the shallow rise and fall of her torso.

Weiss then sourly noted an overlooked detail about the redhead's chest, but fortunately Walter announcing "Chevron six locked." gave her the perfect excuse to take her mind of it.

Tuning out the Earther, Weiss stared ahead intently. Unconsciously she held her breath, waiting for the destructive bloom to obliterate the silver cover. The moment the last chevron locked in place, there was the warping sound of the opening portal. The back of the gate lit up, showing the distorted light. And that was all. There was no bloom, no shockwave, nothing. If not for the lights on the Stargate and the room, she never would have known it was on.

 _That's it?_ The question made her want to laugh; she just discovered the gate existed a few hours ago. She knew next to nothing about the thing, especially compared to these people. Making any sort of assumption about it was an exercise in futility.

"Did it work?" Pyrrha asked softly, hardly audible over the background noise.

A chime came from Weiss's pocket, originating from her scroll. Quickly she yanked her device out, opening it up to see what the problem was. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of an icon she had gone without for hours now: a signal.

"It worked." she reported excitedly.

Carter nodded approvingly, offering a congratulatory "Great, a moment please." to her before going to another console, becoming occupied by something else. At the same time Pyrrha crowded uncomfortably close to her in order to see the screen herself, her body language rippling with well concealed excitement.

"The formats different." she commented interestedly.

"Yeah, there was this big update a few months ago. Um, do you...?" Weiss glanced to her, hoping she would catch the hint.

"My scroll is in my room, it works fine. Major Carter made a charger for all of ours a long time ago." she answered the unfinished question, understanding the subtext. Weiss nodded quickly, feeling relief she couldn't speak the cause of.

Predictably a new pane popped up, showing the alert for a missed message. When it began to download, Weiss frowned. The signal was weak, it was crossing a distance the CCT designers could never have imagined in their wildest dreams after all, but even so it was taking a long- "Oh."

She was peripherally aware of Pyrrha blinking in surprise at what the screen showed them. Just as peripherally, she was aware of Carter abandoning whatever it was she was doing to glance at them.

"What is it?" she questioned, concern in her tone.

"I have some, um, missed calls." Weiss answered, staring mutedly at her screen. In the corner of her vision she saw Carter raising an eyebrow.

"How many?" she asked.

Weiss gulped. "Four."

Carter frowned. "Is that unusual-"

"Tee seven." Pyrrha finished for her, causing the blonde to blink. Even Walter glanced over his shoulder, raising a brow at her.

"You have forty seven missed calls." she summarized carefully, looking dumbfounded.

"How long have you been off-world?" Pyrrha asked confusedly, giving her a strange look.

"A few hours." she quietly answered, her finger rising to the screen to click on the icon. "Um, Carter?" Weiss spoke up, catching the woman's gaze just as she returned to the console she was previously fixated on. "Do you mind keeping the gate on for a few minutes? I need to make a call." she requested, half hoping it would be denied.

"Sure, go ahead." she invited, dashing the pale girl's hopes.

Weiss put her attention back on the scroll, wishing she was somewhere else. She didn't want to hit the call back icon, since she had a good guess to who it was that spammed her inbox. Not for the first time, she silently cursed Ruby for handing out her contact information.

Finally she bit the knife and tapped her screen, just as a fresh message began to download. A new pane appeared, showing a picture of a certain teenager she was regrettably familiar with. Weiss was aware of Pyrrha's curious gaze, but she didn't have the time to explain before it connected.

" _There you are!_ "

Weiss winced instantly, pushing the scroll an arms length away from her. Her volume wasn't set high, yet the exited voice managed to make her scroll's speakers crackle anyway.

" _Man, I was so worried! I checked and rechecked, but I lost track of all of you guys! The twins went scouting around looking for you, I know Blake said not to but c'mon._ " the teen babbled from her scroll. The white toned girl was painfully aware that she had caught the attention of everyone in the altogether too small room. Every pair of eyes had stopped what they were doing to check on the source of the noise.

" _Sorry for calling you so much, but I couldn't get ahold of Ruby or the others. Hey, if she's right there tell her I got my homework done, just like she told me to. I did have to use the, uh, hang on a sec. Where are you guys anyway?_ " Weiss gulped, bringing her scroll closer.

"Valentine." she began carefully, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

" _Um, if its serious I'll call back later. Just, you know, I got worried when I couldn't reach you guys._ " he backpedaled quickly. For a second she marveled at his utter cluelessness.

"Its fine, listen." she glanced sideways to Pyrrha, hoping her nervousness wasn't too obvious. The redhead was muted, looking completely lost at what was going on.

She did mouth ' _classified_ ' while waving her a hand around their surroundings, a cue Weiss didn't need. Even if she did want to tell Valentine about the things she had discovered (and knew for sure the Earthers would be okay with her spilling such a massive secret), there was no way she would do it over a call. Even after seeing it herself, she had trouble believing any of it was real.

"We're fine for now. Its, uh, something important. I can't tell you right now." Weiss began, mindful of how many people were watching. "Are you guys okay?"

" _Yeah we're fine. A pack of Beowolves raided the camp earlier, but we took care of them. Well, Raoul took care of them, I was, uh..._ " Valentine trailed off, likely thinking of an excuse.

"I get it. Listen, I want you to start-" There was a scuffle sound from the other end, making her pause. She couldn't help the pang of worry, despite knowing the first years were competent enough to take care of themselves.

A few seconds later her belief was validated by a brief crackle of someone breathing too close to the scroll's mike. " _Sorry about that, the twins nabbed a Boarbatusk. What were you saying?_ "

"Start packing up the camp, be ready to go in a..." Weiss made a haphazard estimate, "Couple of hours. We'll all be heading back to Beacon once we get there."

" _Huh? Why? There's still a day left._ " Valentine pointed out.

"I know. But this is important. Just be ready to go by then." she said hurriedly, more forcefully than she intended.

" _Oh...okay. We'll do that, I guess._ " he agreed, making Weiss sigh in relief. A moment too soon as it turned out, since he added, " _Good thing you called though, I was getting scared you guys ended up like the last team that disappeared out here._ " before ending the call. A tiny chirp signaled the severed connection, coinciding with an embarrassed gulp from the pale toned girl. Seeing as her call was finished, Carter silently nodded to Walter, who pressed a key. The gate shorted out a few seconds later, leaving the room as it was several minutes ago.

Weiss didn't want to do it. She didn't want to, she was willing to do anything to avoid doing what she knew she had to do in the next moment. Recalling her situation back home, she mentally amended the thought to almost anything, before fate decided to grant her wish in its usual regrettable way. Slowly she creaked her head to the side, meeting the nonplussed eyes of her former classmate. Her green eyes bored into Weiss, disconcerted curiosity seeking out answers she desperately didn't want to give. Though trailed by guilt, she mentally cursed Ruby for leaving her on her own like this.

"Last team." Pyrrha repeated.

"Um, you guys were, um, declared dead." Internally Weiss marveled at stuttering much less than she thought she would. What little joy the accomplishment gave her died when the redhead nodded neutrally, showing little reaction to her official status.

"Makes sense." she commented with a tiny nod.

Fortunately Carter chose to clear her throat for attention, giving her an excuse to move on from that subject. "I have the telemetry data. Do either of you want to see?"

Weiss darted over to the terminal the woman used, a display of speed more in line with what Ruby would do. She started to hunch over the outdated machine, but she quickly changed her mind and backed off a little. Pyrrha came closer as well of course, no matter how much the pale girl wished she wouldn't. Expanding on her status was not something she wanted to delve into; she recalled the funeral with Yang and Blake with a special type of apprehension.

Carter seemed like she picked up on her unease, but fortunately she didn't inquire on the situation, a fact Weiss was grateful for. The woman then tapped a random key, making the low resolution screen, by her standards anyway, show something new. In this case, it was a purple and blue picture of a large spiraled disk, set to a black background. One icon was present already, situated midway on one spiral.

"That's Earth." Pyrrha said, apparently for Weiss's benefit.

The pale toned girl blinked once the implication sank in. She was staring at a poorly rendered map of the stars above her head, the vast space that she knew was beyond her people's reach, always had been. All the infinite splendor of the unknown universe, and they had it reduced to a single unassuming picture. It boggled her mind how the SGC were so casual about such a thing.

Yet in a bizarre way she understood how they could do it. Flicking her gaze out the window, Weiss saw the Stargate at rest. The black ring was capable of sending someone to any other gate provided they knew the correct code, address. At instantaneous speed to boot, if her call was anything to go by. In a way, it was like the CCT towers. Just done in a way which was impossible to compare.

"And here." Carter continued, dragging Weiss back to the present. "Is Remnant." a new icon punctuated her sentence, one on the same level as the first but on the spiral next to it. "Its approximately twenty five hundred light years away, give or take a dozen or so."

Staring at her home's place in the universe, Weiss was compelled to ask, "Light years?"

"Its in the name, the distance light travels in a year." Pyrrha spoke up distantly, peering at the screen. The look on her face made Weiss think she was memorizing what it told her.

"So, if your civilization had radios two and a half millennia ago, they'd just now be reaching here." Carter explained, glancing at Walter for something. Checking herself, the pale girl saw him engrossed with his terminal. She had the feeling what she saw constituted the majority of his job here.

"Okay." Pyrrha said softly, straightening herself up and turning around, "Now that's done, I'm going to-" she stopped mid sentence. Taking a deep breath, Weiss prepared for whatever fresh problem decided to visit her today. She spun around, discovering a uniformed woman less than a meter from her. One of her hands was almost tapping her.

She noticed several details about this woman who had come close to touching her; she wasn't ugly by strict definition but was far from beautiful, there was a purple stripe on her bangs, and she had a red beret to go with her splotched green uniform. It was like the two soldiers she passed in the hallway on the way to the briefing, or close to them anyway. The unknown soldier quickly withdrew her hand, crossing her arms with a huff.

"This jobs making me sloppy." she muttered. The lilt to her words was unlike anything Weiss had ever heard before, leaving the end result almost musical in execution.

"Lieutenant Kozak." Carter acknowledged from behind the muted girls. The woman gave perhaps the laziest salute the pale girl had ever seen before crossing her arms.

"Right mum." Weiss was sure she meant ma'am, but her pronunciation mangled it so badly she couldn't tell, "Sokol sent me up 'ere to see why you were screwing with the gate."

"We're inputting the address to these girls's home world." the blonde explained, waving at Weiss and Pyrrha. The former noticed the later trying to seemingly shrink away, more than the normal level of low ranking troops. The woman, Kozak, nodded and scoffed at the same time.

"That's all? Well, as long as ya don't blow up the planet." she shook her head for a second, taking the time to look over a visibly off put Weiss. "Havin fun lass?"

"Who are you?" she questioned back, disturbed yet unseemly curious.

"Call me Clover if you want. Now, what's that behind you?" Kozak pointed over her shoulder. Frowning, Weiss looked to the direction she indicated. Apart from glass and more terminals, she saw nothing.

"What are you talking-" Weiss began as she turned around, "About." she finished emptily. The woman was gone, like she had never existed.

Mutedly, she turned to the side. Whatever her feelings at the sight of the former invincible warrior looking sheepish were pushed aside, in favor of learning what she knew about the encounter just now.

"That was...one of the Russian team members." she explained quietly. The pale girl didn't let up on her questioning gaze, so the redhead added, "She's Irish though." her cheeks reddened more at the uncomprehending look on Weiss's face.

Carter cleared her throat, loudly. "Nikos, go get cleaned up, I'll take it from here."

"Yes ma'am." Pyrrha replied, very quickly in Weiss's opinion. Seeing her power off made the heiress reflect that turnabout was fair play.

"So, I imagine you have many questions about that." Carter said carefully. Schooling her features back to her calm state, Weiss turned back around, noting the blonde soldier appearing a little embarrassed. She also noted Walter doing his upmost to stay focused on what he was doing instead of getting involved.

"Just one for now. Is being weird a job requirement here?" she asked, forcing the casualness in her tone.

00000

 _"Well Weiss, you're up." Yang nudged her friend with her elbow, sliding just far enough away so her retaliation couldn't be hidden._

 _The white toned girl found herself at the center of attention, twelve separate pairs of eyes focused on her. Blake, Ruby, Ren, and Nora gave her a sympathetic look, while Jaune, Pyrrha, and Yang tried to look encouraging. Meanwhile the Earthers waited patiently for her to speak, none of them showing much besides friendly looks. Especially O'Neill; the others had straightened up in General Hammond's presence, but he leaned back in his chair with a pen in his grip once more._

 _She took a deep breath, mustering her nerves._

 _"Okay. From the beginning?" she checked first, directing her gaze to the end of the table._

 _"Yes. As much as you are willing to share." Hammond said, the twang in his words strange from her point of view._

 _Jackson spoke up with, "Try to remember as many details as you can, no matter how trivial they may seem."_

 _"Okay." Weiss murmured, dredging her memory for everything she could recall of the the fleeting dream. "I don't remember everything, but I know there was this big open field. Lots of grass, flat, clear sky, so on. In the distance there was this large golden pyramid." she recounted as a shorter version._

 _"Was there a small mountain range in the distance? In the suns direction?" Jaune asked her, glancing to Hammond carefully._

 _Weiss did a double take._ _"Y-yeah. How'd you know that?"_

 _Upon seeing the collective attention switch to him, Jaune brought up a fist to clear his throat._

 _"P5Z-502, a month ago." he recited the string of letters from memory without hesitation._

 _"The search and rescue mission for those missing archeologists?" Ren asked him, which he nodded. Nora made an 'ah' expression, while Pyrrha nodded._

 _When Ruby pointedly cleared her own throat, Major Carter added, "There was a civilian archeological team that was doing research there, but the local wildlife chased them away from their camp. When they failed to check in, we ended up dispatching four SG teams to locate them." she concluded with a nod to the other side of the table as Team RWBY._

 _"They're fine if you're wondering. Very upset, but who wouldn't be?" Pyrrha added._

 _"On the way back I told these guys this really funny joke I overheard in the mess, it was about..." Nora trailed off, not by her apparent superiors looks but by the dropped jaw of Weiss. The rest of her team was similarly disturbed, all three of them feeling off balance by the uncanny guess._

 _"Continue please." Hammond spoke gently. Seeing her friend go a shade paler, Blake felt obliged to gently nudge her._

 _Taking a second to work a shudder out of her system, Weiss pressed on. "W-when I woke up, I knew they were in Forever Fall somewhere. Um, that's a local forest..." she gulped at their expectant stares, their friends and the Earthers alike, "And we went to check it out."_

 _"An overwhelming compulsion." Teal'c spoke up for the first time since the introduction. His basso voice lacked any emotion, as did his body language. More than one of the visitors considered the possibility he was an android._

 _"Yeah, that's putting it lightly." Yang commented._

 _"Go on if you can." Hammond spoke carefully._

 _"Mind if I..." Ruby looked to her friend, receiving a grateful nod. "We found the gate by accident. Well, Blake found it." she nodded to the direction of the faunus, "Poked around it for a few, figured no ones been by it anytime recently." she explained._

 _"When did this happen?" Jackson asked her, taking a peek at the report for reference._

 _"This morning." the red toned girl answered apprehensively, seeing confused frowns go over the faces of everyone but Jaune._

 _"Just a puddle of hours ago." Yang added._

 _Blank stares met her; the closest thing to a laugh she got was an aborted snicker from Nora. She groaned._

 _"Really? No one?" she muttered ruefully. Blake was the third one since the briefing started to clear her throat, making her sighed irritably. "C'mon, someone has to lighten the mood."_

 _"They can't all be gems." O'Neill shrugged, giving Hammond an apologetic look when the General turned his hard gaze to him._

 _"Still, that doesn't make any sense. The gate I mean." Carter commented._

 _"Well, we didn't figure out how to turn it on ourselves." Blake spoke up, "What happened was when Weiss saw the DHD..." she paused, trying to word her answer properly._

 _"I blacked out, made the thing work while I was out, then, well." Weiss interrupted quickly, wishing to move passed the unpleasant memories to find out what they knew._

 _"You weren't conscious at the time it was working? And when you came to, your intuition told you what glyphs you hit." Jackson guessed, frowning._

 _"Yeah. It was, um, not good." Ruby added, giving Weiss another sympathetic look. She wasn't the only one; all four members of the formerly missing team did their best to show support for her, even the previously informed Jaune._

 _"Then we stepped through the Stargate, and ended up on Cimmeria. You probably know the rest." Weiss finished hastily, crossing her arms then repositioning them nervously._

 _The Earthers exchanged looks, letting their supposed expertise go over the information she provided. O'Neill played with a pen, though none of the girls were sure it was the same one from earlier. "So, who else thinks Ancients?"_

 _"Sounds like the Ancients." Carter agreed with a nod._

 _"Her testimony is in line with what we know of them." Teal'c rumbled._

 _"I agree." Hammond nodded._

 _"Fits their MO." Jackson finished._

 _Team RWBY was quiet for a moment, which not even a glance to a sheepish JNPR could fix. Ruby took the lead in breaking the silence by a simplistic question._

 _"Um, Ancients?"_

00000

Yang Xiao Long was well aware she wasn't perfect. She was good; maybe not behavior wise, but she was good where it counted. From taking a punch to her jaw to breaking bones and hearts, she could do it all. Keep the bad guys away from the people she cared about, kill Grimm for fun and profit, squeezing in a discount here and there, it was all part of her gig.

But still, she could make mistakes. The reminder that never went away was on her right hand, a lack of something which complicated everything in her life. Every day, from when she woke up to when she fell asleep, it was there, mocking her. She told her friends and her dad it was alright, even spouting a lie about making herself a southpaw as a challenge, which soon became an actual goal she mostly succeeded at. Screw ups were a part of life, the only thing she could do was move on from them and try not to get into the same mess again.

Screw ups like shooting herself with alien weapons on accident.

Yang was in a lot of pain, feeling like she got hit with lightning. Which was odd, since she did get hit by lightning once and it didn't hurt this much. More widely, worldly, _weirdly_ (why was thinking so hard all of a sudden?) she should've been on her feet ready to hit someone. Instead Yang was on her back, using the concrete floor as her new bed. It was rough and dirty, but it was cool. It felt nice all of a sudden. She felt a pair of hands grab her, tiny ones. Probably Ruby. She was right by her, wasn't she? Other ones touched her other side, a rougher pair of palms. Ren? Maybe Nora, but she left though. Yang couldn't tell. As long as they didn't try copping a feel while she was like this, she didn't mind.

She was certain she heard " _Yang_!" from her sister though. That sounded like alarm, not good.

Idly she wondered how she got into this mess, remembering after a second.

Ren hadn't lied per se, he and Nora took the siblings to the armory at Ruby's request. The weapons buff in her sister couldn't resist the allure of new toys, and it took her mind off the freaky stuff which summed up the day. Aliens, new worlds, her missing friends were soldiers in the airship specialist branch of an alien military, and more people who didn't think highly of Yang's puns. What a shock.

He conveniently left out the part about a medical checkup first, claiming it was on the way after they got there. The infirmary didn't look like much, but since nothing here did she wasn't going to hold it against the Earthers. Some sandy blonde woman checked Yang's and her sister's vitals, asked them if they had any allergies or sickness recently (faking a cough had the funniest reaction), then asked for a sample of blood from both of them.

Ruby rolled up her sleeve first thing, trusting Nora when she enthusiastically told them it was normal. Yang was suspicious, but the doctor said it was part of an experiment. Something about 'genetic divergence over diaspora populations' or whatever. She rolled her eyes and offered her arm, regretting it when she produced an old fashioned syringe. Doctor Brightman (her name tag proved to be so helpful) saw her cringing and immediately explained herself.

"I've been doing this for fifteen years. I assure you, I'm a professional." She used the tone that other doctors she knew of liked to bust out for nervous patients, so Yang was sure this woman was the real deal.

Didn't make getting stabbed by an oversized needle any easier, but since her sister only winced a little when the Earther took her blood, Yang was obligated to smirk when her turn came. It still hurt, though in the grand scheme of things she couldn't say it was all that bad. She got a piece of candy out of the deal too, a tiny lollipop. Hers was green for some reason, so she swapped for Ruby's brown one when she wasn't looking.

Oddly her favorite pair of opposites looked uneasy at being around the doctor; Yang wanted to assume they didn't like her or whatever, nothing to get worked up over. But since she had been wrong so many times today, she was willing to bet it was something else.

After the five minutes of the weird stuff was done with and they stepped outside, Ren pointed in a direction for them to go, leading the way. He and Nora fell into old habits; she babbled about the stuff they'd been up to, making up for his silence. As much as Yang didn't want to admit it, seeing them be like that relived her. It was good to know they were still how they used to be, not counting the terrible fashion sense and new habits.

Ruby talked with Nora for as much as she could keep up with, which wasn't much. The bubbly girl kept switching subjects, sometimes mid sentence. Stuff like where she'd been, things she'd seen, and something about lizard people. Yang gave up on tracking her, going over to Ren instead. He was tight lipped of course, she would've been more surprised if he wasn't. She did get to see his shoulder patch though, wondering what the 14 meant.

"Its a designation. On paper, what matters is what the teams do, not what number they have. A member of SG-24 is no better than one in SG-2. In practice though, SG-1 is much more prestigious than the rest." Ren explained to her when her curiosity got the better of her. When Yang asked him why the first team was so much better, he replied with: "Been here the longest. They're the go-to team for whatever crisis is hitting today."

In Yang's own opinion, that answer made a thousand more questions. Like how often did a crisis happen, and what qualified as one. But since she just found her three year old ironclad facts were a whole new brand of wrong, she decided to give him a break for the time being. Picking his brain about everything here would come later, preferably once they were back home safe and sound.

But after a minute of Nora's exited yammering, Yang changed her mind. "So what kind of stuff have you been up to?"

"What do you mean?" Ren asked her back.

Jerking a thumb over her shoulder, she replied with, "Nora hasn't stopped yet about what she's done. Got any stories you want to share?"

"Not really." he shrugged off.

Yang snorted then. "C'mon, there's gotta be something. Like, I dunno, have you taken down a goold or something?"

"Or something. What about you? If I remember right, Vale was supposed to host the next Vytal festival." Ren offered.

In retrospect, Yang should've known that would come up sooner or later. "Uh, yeah. It was, um, we were there. Hey where's the armory at?"

Ren raised one sable brow at her stammering. Yang didn't want to go down that road, but she knew she was going to have to sooner or later. When he stopped to announce "Here." she breathed a sigh of relief at it being later instead.

The armory was plain of course, but then again so was everything else in this mountain. Yang ignored the thought of how much rock separated her from the sky like she'd been doing for a while now, taking a second to glance over the only thing which made this door stand out: a sign on the door which said 'Armory 2B.'

Predictably, there was yet another surprise waiting for them inside. Unlike others she would've had an easier time dealing with, this one made Yang brace herself.

"Miss Rose. Miss Xiao Long." greeted Major Smith, going away from a small desk to stand at attention. Yang tuned out everything else, mostly. It was hard to ignore Ren and Nora snapping out quick salutes, though she tried her hardest. If the faint looks of regret on them was anything to go by, she didn't do a good job at it.

"Smith." Ruby replied. The way she got the name out told Yang the Earther had done something very hard: he got on her bad side. She'd never seen someone get that way so soon after meeting her, even beating out Cardin Winchester. To his credit, he took her quiet hostility in stride.

"First, you two." he nodded towards the pair with the siblings. "For the time being, you can drop the salutes. I still expect a sir." he ordered to them. Seeing them both looking dumbstruck would've been funny in any other situation, if she didn't just see what caused it. At least she thought she saw the cause.

"Secondly, I do apologize for not recognizing who you were back on Cimmeria." he directed to Ruby. To Yang, while she still looked at him distastefully, there was also plenty of surprise mixed in.

Seeing a chance, the blonde jumped in. "You knew who she was?"

"Heard enough stories about you both. In hindsight, I should have known who you were immediately." he told them, sounding almost sincere about it.

"Okay." Ruby had replied neutrally, definitely confused by him.

Yang could understand why her sister didn't like the man; besides being a soldier, her first encounter with him handily showed off the unwelcome change in Jaune. At the same time though, the blonde thought it was unfair to him. Sure he seemed like an uptight jerk, but he didn't look or act like a bully. In his defense, and Yang surprised herself when she realized she was mentally defending him, it seemed like he stuck up for their old friend a lot.

"It seems the second hand intelligence I have on you was right. But there's something you should be aware of if you're not already. Regulations forbid civilians such as yourselves from touching anything in here without an officer's direct permission. Technically, you're not supposed to be in here at all." Smith explained, his tone unchanging.

Yang hardened her gaze when she turned to the wonder duo, catching them cringing at her. Nora opened her mouth to defend herself, but she was interrupted by Smith talking. "To do anything but gawk, you need an officer's permission. Such as myself."

"Huh?" Ruby got out, raising an eyebrow. He held out a hand to the wall, leading the sisters eyes to a most wondrous sight: guns, rows and rows of black guns they'd never seen before.

"I'll take care of the paperwork. Provided you follow the rules in here, you two can do whatever you want, within reason. No touching the antitank missiles." he added quickly with a raised hand for emphasis.

Yang planted a fist on her hip and grinned at him. "You're a big softy underneath, aren't you?" she asked him, peeking to the closest of the duo with a look which she hoped got across the question of ' _Is this normal for him?_ ' As the nearest, Ren caught the gesture and imperceptibly shook his head. Idly she wondered what a tank was.

"I owe Jaune a favor. Besides, if you're anything like how he described you, then no force on this planet is going to keep you away." he finished. The corners of his mouth twitched up, likely the closest thing to a smile they were going to get.

Nora cleared her throat. "So, uh, what do you wanna see first?"

"Actually, I've been wondering. What happened to your guys' weapons? The ones you had before." Ruby asked her carefully, making it obvious she was watching the Earther out of the corner of her eye. To Yang, it didn't look like he cared. Smith picked a reasonably bare wall to lean against, crossing his arms and watching them.

"Still got em, don't get to use them much anymore." she answered glumly. She immediately brightened up though. "Did get them upgraded though, wanna see?"

"Upgraded?" Ruby asked confusedly. "How?"

Nora glanced to Smith, who nodded. "You'll see. Be right back!" she bolted the second she finished, darting out the door in not quite a sprint.

Both siblings looked to Ren, who quietly sighed. "Over here." he gestured to the wall.

Leading them over, he picked out a single weapon from the rack of guns. Yang kept an eye on Ruby, prepared to grab her in case her enthusiasm got the better of her. Fortunately she didn't try to pinch one herself, waiting until the sable haired young man turned back with a familiar shape in his grip.

"Uh, that's a P90 right?" Yang asked, which he nodded to.

"Jaune told you?" he inquired, offering it with the barrel pointed at the ceiling. Yang took it upon herself to try it first, having been curious since she first saw the gun.

"Yeah. He showed it to us back on Cimmeria, just let us see it." Ruby hurriedly lied, alternating between the otherworldly gun and the Earther.

Speaking of seeing, Yang turned the weapon over in her hands, though she wasn't careless enough to accidentally point it at someone. Her dad hammered that lesson into them both almost as soon as she could walk, she didn't need a reminder. She spotted a big difference between this one and Jaune's: this one didn't have the orange magazine slid on top. Even so, she took care.

Taking it into her left hand, she pointed it at a bare wall, unable to resist posing. In Yang's opinion, the grip's design could be better, a pistol grip instead of the curved circles would make it much easier to use.

"Cool." she commented regardless, bringing it back around.

Yang could tell Ruby wanted to play with it, but she wanted to see a bit more first. Fiddling with a notch above the trigger, she made an accidental discovery.

"Is this thing ambidextrous?" she asked, surprised.

"Yeah. Built from the ground up to be like that." Ren answered. Shaking her head in patient amazement, Yang finally handed the P90 over to Ruby. She immediately checked the same notches as the blonde, finding everything to be the same way.

"Sure was nice of the builder. Are there that many lefties here?" Yang asked him.

"Not very many." Ren answered. When she frowned at him, he pointed to Ruby.

The red toned girl had the gun nestled into her shoulder, just like a full rifle. She raised it to the same wall her sister pointed at, looking down the sights. Then, she moved it to her other shoulder. All it took was a couple of seconds and a repositioning of her hands, and her pose was mirrored. Ruby switched between her shoulders several times, amazed that her born favorite hand could be fully utilized.

"I get it." Yang said, nodding. "Its so you can flip between hands in a fight really easy, right?" she looked at him for an answer.

"That too." he shrugged.

"I wanna shoot it." Ruby interrupted her questioning look, holding the gun so it was pointed at the ceiling again.

"Don't you want see what else is here first?" Yang asked her, crossing her arms and smiling at the girl's deflated form as Ren silently asked for the P90 back, which she agreed to. She knew her well enough to know that the promise of new weapons would make her bounce back soon enough, and when he went to a locker for something hand sized, she was proven right.

Ren held up the lump of bluish brown metal to them, giving them a good view. "This is called a Zat'nik'tel, Zat for short."

Yang caught the difference, but Ruby beat her to the punch.

"That's different from the others." she noted, glancing to the gun row.

There was something distinctly off about the 'Zat.' Aesthetically it didn't match the other weapons on the wall, either for color or shape. She didn't see a visible magazine, safety, anything really. Just decal covered metal, split into three segments. Thinking it over, Yang was certain Jaune had a similar gun on him while they were on Cimmeria.

"This is a Goa'uld weapon." Ren answered, causing them both to do a double take.

"But, wait. Why do you guys have Goold equipment? I thought they were supposed to be evil?" Yang questioned, crossing her arms. In the edge of her vision she saw Ruby nodding as well.

"They are. They like this weapon because it causes a lot of pain to the target. The SGC uses it because you can incapacitate someone without permanent harm." he explained.

Ren clicked something, and the Zat suddenly popped up. With the overall design, it bore an uncomfortable resemblance to a snake. Upon thinking that, Yang remembered Jaune's casual slur; was this the source of the insult?

"Huh. Lemme see." Before he could stop her, Yang reached out to snag the weapon from his grip. He tensed up, alarm clouding his features.

"Hey, be careful-" Ren said quickly, trying to grab it back. Yang twisted herself around to evade him, idly discovering Smith abandoning the wall to power over to them.

"Um, Yang?" Ruby quietly protested, holding up her own hands plaintively.

"C'mon." Yang fiddled with it, unintentionally making the headpiece face her instead of the wall. Her finger rubbed against a tiny lever on the grip, accidentally applying just enough pressure. "How bad can it-"

A bolt of blue electricity left the headpiece, striking the closest target. Yang's world went from zero to pain in record time, and her mind was scrambled. She dropped to the floor, the Zat slipping from her limp hold. She was hardly aware of anything but her nerves screaming in agony. Of maybe it was her sister screaming her name, she couldn't tell.

So concluded the tale of how Yang shot herself.

The blonde didn't lose consciousness, but she couldn't do anything other than groan in pain for an unknown amount of time. A helpful pair of hands slid on her back to her armpits, helping to lift her off the floor. As she came to, Yang grew more and more aware of the things around her. Like Ruby on her knees in front of her, tears in her eyes as relief flooded her features. Or Ren and Nora crouched beside her, both appearing relieved as the latter handled her right arm to help drag her up.

"You okay?" asked a voice behind her. After a hazy second, she realized it was Smith.

"Uuhh." she moaned when she was tried to speak, grimacing in pain.

When she felt well enough to sit up on her own, the helpful hands withdrew. Along the way, Nora brushed over her hand. Her worried expression flickered, the grip hesitating over the misshapen hand for several long seconds. Yang was close to normal again, so she caught the flash of something over the girl's face. Something which made her nervous. Nora didn't push it though, she just took the chance to reassuringly pat her hand.

Ruby took a shuddering breath before turning severely to them. "What just happened?"

Ren sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I was going to tell you before she took it. I don't know how or why, but Auras don't block energy weapons like these."

Both Yang and Ruby gave him a shocked look.

"Our Auras don't work out here?" the latter questioned sharply, surprise and worry coming over her. Both of them shook their heads.

"Oh no, they work just fine." Nora corrected, waving her hands in placation.

"Seen it often enough myself." Smith said from behind her, causing her to creak her head around. The crouched man was, as probably normal for him, calm. "The Aura thing you guys have? I've seen Jaune's take hits that would put down a bull and he kept going. But stuff like Zats or Staffs? Doesn't do a thing."

"But, how? How do they do that?" Ruby looked to the Zat suspiciously, still in the same place as where she dropped it.

"Beats me. It makes things harder though." Ren shook his head once more.

In contrast, Nora grinned evilly. "Not me though, I get stronger."

Yang groaned and slapped her face. "Any more unpleasant surprises?"

"Like the time Jaune-" Nora began, but when Ren gave her a look she clamped her mouth shut.

"If it makes you feel better, you took the hit well. I was out cold for an hour the first time I got hit with one." Smith offered with a shrug.

Yang didn't bother replying; planting both hands on the floor, she began to push herself up. Seeing her struggle, Ruby and Ren grabbed her shoulders to help her. She feebly protested, but with her nerves still raw she did need the assistance. Back on her shaky feet, the blonde sighed.

"So... want to see our gear? I brought Magnhild and Stormflower." Nora offered to lighten the mood. Cracking her neck, Yang nodded.


	8. Somewhere new pt2

**A/N: Word of warning, my beta KisaragiKei is out of the country right now. So expect this one to not have the usual level of polish**.

00000

"My ancestors were slaves." Blake repeated flatly, frowning at what the talkative and noncommittal men respectively had told her.

"Common Goa'uld practice." Dr. Jackson elaborated, waving his hands around as he spoke. "Its equally common for them to abandon their slaves on planets they're no longer interested in, leaving the people there on their own. In some cases they stay at the same level of culture and technology, in others they end up advancing in both spheres. Unfortunately, not many of them reach a level of development to fight off the Goa'uld if or when they eventually return." he half rambled, reminding the faunus of a professor. Their current location of the briefing room helped support the feeling.

"Very few worlds are able to reach technological parity before they are conquered or destroyed." the rumbling monotone of Teal'c added, interrupting the man's excellent impression of a statue. His own emotionless gaze stayed on her.

Blake nodded uneasily, processing what they explained to her. At the same time she was quietly irritated, since they broke her concentration.

"So, from what you know of Remnant." she appeared to hesitate on her wording.

" _You and the others are now officially removed from your current positions, to be reorganized into a new team._ We don't have a lot of direct information on your world. But there is enough here from your friends to piece together a decent picture." Jackson spoke, perhaps guessing her thoughts. He was on the right track, but it wasn't the reason she was taking so long.

Once he ended the briefing Hammond took O'Neill and Jaune into his office the next room over then shut the door, a move which would give them a large degree of privacy. While the rest of her friends scattered to every corner of the mountain base, she stayed behind, ostensibly to talk with the two men about the wider galaxy. If Blake Belladonna were human, she would have been left in the dark concerning what the General was going to discuss with the pair. But Blake wasn't human.

Faunus had superior senses compared to humans, a well established fact known by virtually everyone on Remnant. What few realized were the _implications_ of those superior senses; every faunus grew up learning how to tune out frivolous information in order to function normally, ignoring things such as a conversation in the next room. There were an unlucky few who could never fully adjust to a human style civilization, forced to stay away to spare themselves a lifetime of pain. Most learned how to live as others did though, and Blake was no exception. It had never been a problem until now.

Because now the dark haired girl was fighting through years of natural conditioning in order to overhear what was being said, while also paying attention to the explanation the two men were providing. It was a trying task to sort the conversations apart, but thus far she was handling it well. Even if she wasn't, whatever they were discussing was too important to ignore.

" _I am placing you in charge of the provisional team, designated SG-25. Congratulations Sergeant Arc._ " Blake quietly cleared her throat, hiding her surprise.

" _From enlisted to an en-see-oh in three hours. Not bad for a monday kid._ Your planet is in what Sam, um, Major Carter, calls an Anti-Goldilocks zone. I personally dislike the term, since its a reference to an old fairytale on Earth which has a less than happy ending. Anti of course means the opposite, _T-thank you sir_ so it should mean a good status." Jackson half rambled. She nodded automatically, noting the blond's tone of voice. Jaune's unseen reply sounded both grateful and nervous at the same time.

"Is it good?" Blake replied quickly, hoping the two men would mistake the source of her haste as eagerness.

" _Your orders_ Well, _are to accompany SG-1_ no. _Back to your homeworld to make contact_ The original fairytale had the titular _with your government_ character get devoured by bears _in order to facilitate relations with Earth_ for trespassing. _Colonel O'Neill_ So being a goldilocks is not good at all _will be in command_." Silently she cursed the Earthers for deciding to talk at the same time.

"What's this mean for us?" she left hanging, feigning interest. Internally she mused on what Hammond was telling Jaune.

Just what did 'facilitate relations' mean here? It was possible Earth wanted to draw Remnant into its war with the Goa'uld, seeking new resources, weapons, or potentially, _recruits_. The frightening part for Blake was knowing their struggle would appeal to many across the Four Kingdoms; if freeing millions ( _billions_ even) from slavery wasn't enough incentive, then the simple allure of adventure to places never before seen would draw in a sizable number of her people to their banner. She briefly imagined several of the first years, or even a few third year teams in uniforms like JNPR's. The image made her shudder.

Blake realized Jackson was talking again, so she did her best to pay attention to him. "-ow odds of survival. Optimistically the Goa'uld would just bombard the major cities as a demonstration of their power, only sending down ground troops once resistance was cowed or there was something _Sir_ they wanted, riches or technology."

On the one hand, Blake was hearing the playbook for the end of her civilization, how her people would either be enslaved or burned. Her entire history, her entire world, everything and everyone she had ever known, set to the torch. To be remembered only as a trophy of conquest in some alien overlord's throne room. On the other, Jaune's tone for the one word was off from the usual genuflections. She asked herself why the second mattered in any way compared to the first.

" _Don't look at me, I had nothing to do with this._ Then again, there is a point in your favor. As far as we can tell, your friends were the first travelers from Remnant in centuries, possibly millennia. _Is there a problem with this plan?_ Most likely no one apart from us and the Cimmerians even knows your world exists." Hammond's voice had the stern quality of a headmaster whose student had told him he was wrong. Blake was worried for Jaune, wondering what would happen to him for talking back like that.

" _Well, sir,_ The Creatures of Grimm seem to be effective at stopping foreign incursions." Teal'c added once more in his curious monotone, "We believe this was the fate of the Goa'uld Lord Kagutsuchi."

"In Earth mythology, Kagutsuchi is a deity in a country called Japan, he's still worshipped in a few places there. _Speak up son._ " Jackson elaborated and Hammond ordered.

Blake nodded along, but internally she was nervous. Jaune had been quiet for too long.

" _I don't believe sending SG-1 is a good idea sir._ "

Blake coughed, causing Jackson to give her a strange look.

"Allergies." she answered the unspoken question, hoping he would buy it. He 'ah'd' in understanding, but Teal'c continued to stare at her. There was something in his rarely blinking gaze that made her unconsciously bristle; most of the Earthers she encountered so far had a hardness to them, but they weren't permanently like that, if Major Smith or O'Neill were the average here. In contrast dark skinned man was stoic to the point of robotic, almost unnaturally so.

" _Explain._ Anyway, the relevance here is Kagutsuchi is, or was rather, an underlord of the System Lord Amaterasu. Used to be a big player in Goa'uld politics, but sometime in the last millennium he ended up becoming a vassal _go on_ of her. As far as we know, he decided to go _you kicked the hornets nest here_ conquer a world behind his master's back to increase his own power."

"According to his followers, Kagutsuchi traveled to the chappa'ai to scry for a world ripe for conquest." Teal'c added.

"Goa'uld name for the Stargate _Sir, I don't_. In actuality he was dialing randomly until he got a match, then once he had one, _I don't think its safe_ he gathered a demi-company of his Jaffa _for you or anyone else here_ to march through _to travel there._ He either would've found a few villages to proclaim his rule over or he would find cities, in which case he would've dispatched one of his ships to the planet."

Blake nodded in understanding, internally noting Jaune's hesitancy. For Jackson's story, she paying very little attention. It seemed interesting, but the men's conversation took priority.

" _Kid, what part_ We got intel from the Tok'ra, long story there, _of this job is safe?_ so we, SG-1 I mean, traveled to his capital world to find a way to disrupt his plan. When we got there, there were eleven unconscious Jaffa and four armed teenagers waiting instead." the bespectacled man explained with a wave.

"So, a question." Blake started carefully, "I realize the Goa'uld _I know sir_ are evil, but could it have been possible to get Remnant's address from him _what I mean to say is_ or his followers." she internally groaned, hating how she ended up talking over Jaune.

"First thing we tried. _You don't know the planet like we do_. Kagutsuchi memorized the address instead of writing it down, and given the Goa'uld's _I admit that I and my team are out of practice_ natural paranoia he didn't bother to share it with his warriors _but we still have a far better idea_ who only knew their own home address _of what to do there than you._ "

"What about, Kagut-whatever?" Blake quickly prompted.

" _Plus, we have_ N _o i_ d _ea_ ,no ones seen or heard from him _how effective Earth made weapons are_ for close to three years now _against the Grimm._ His surviving warriors didn't say anything about what happened there but but Orac. Goa'uld word for unspeakable monster _._ " Jackson made little movements with his hands as he explained. Blake frowned, raising an eyebrow.

"So, you think he never left Remnant. _Says the guy with a sword._ " Some fear was in her tone, much of it stemming from Jaune's apparent defiance. Much, but far from all.

"We believe he was killed by the Creatures of Grimm. _With all due respect sir, I know I can handle myself there, you don't._ " Teal'c rumbled as Jaune calmly refuted O'Neill.

Blake blinked, for the moment fixating on their explanation rather than Hammond's. "Are you sure?"

"Unless there's _you're telling me you think_ been a new politician, businessman _I should send someone with practically no experience_ or religious leader rising up in the power structure _over one of my best_ in the past three years _just because they don't know_ seriously, has there _the dangers there and you do_ been?" Jackson asked. Hammond's tone had turned dangerously cold, and Blake was afraid for Jaune. She had no idea what would happen to him for speaking out like this.

"Um, none that I know of." she replied distractedly.

Teal'c turned his head to Jackson.

"Daniel Jackson, would you please bring me something to drink?" he requested. The bespectacled man gave him a questioning look, raising a brow.

"Uh, sure. Anything in particular you want _y-yes sir._ " the banal question was ignored. Blake was focused almost entirely on Jaune; while he sounded plenty hesitant, he still kept to his stance instead of just agreeing with the general. The Faunus was scared for him, yet at the same time she felt some real admiration for standing up to the man.

"Coffee. Is _again_ there anything _you use a sword kid_ you would like Blake Belladonna?" Teal'c turned to speak. She needed a second to realize it was directed at her, causing the black haired girl to bashfully clear her throat.

"Um, do you have tea here?" Blake asked him quickly.

"A few kinds, _O'Neill_ none are what I'd call _your opinion_ high quality." Jackson answered as he stood up.

"Anythings fine." she replied.

" _Well sir, my_ _first thought is he let the mighty power of the sergeant rank go to his head already._ " O'Neill half mocked as Jackson stood up and walked away. Blake turned to track him, still listening in. " _Second impulse is to say you wanna prove you and your buds are ready when you're not_ Blake Belladonna."

Snapping her head around, the dark haired girl found herself under the steady gaze of Teal'c.

"Yes?" she replied curtly.

" _That's not it_ Are _sir_ you bored by this conversation?" he asked her, less expressive than an android. Blake idly wondered if the Grimm could even sense him.

"No. Well, a little." she admitted with a shrug. He nodded once.

" _I was getting to that_ Or do you find the discussion in the next room more enlightening?" Teal'c monotoned.

Blake opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out. For several seconds she clamped it shut and opened back up, her jaw working soundlessly. Her eyes fluttered uncontrollably, while the muscles in her face spasmed.

"H-h-how..." she got out at last, unwittingly slipping back into her childhood conditioning. The dark skinned man's own expression had all the emotion of a rock.

"I read the report concerning your friends thoroughly. Faunus tend to have superior senses compared to humans, as well as possessing animal traits. If your name was not a cited example of one, I would have known by your distracted attitude and your bow moving numerous times on its own accord." he explained. A a degree of life finally entered his voice, even if the rest of him was still.

"Y-you knew." she pushed her chair back from the table, her instincts telling her to put some distance between them.

He made no move other than blinking and breathing. "I suspected. Your reaction confirmed it."

"Does..." she trailed off, narrowing her eyes.

"I suspect neither Daniel Jackson nor General Hammond are aware of your status. I will not inform them of this development, provided you answer my question satisfactorily." Teal'c offered.

Blake's eyes narrowed. "What?"

"How will you act on the information you have obtained?" he questioned flatly, focusing his hard gaze on her. The emblem on his forehead faintly reflected the light, unwavering.

She was silent for several seconds, pondering her answer. For the length of the men's conversation, she couldn't point to anything which hinted at their plans, good or evil. Whether they were good or bad, she simply didn't know. There were too many unknown variables to make an informed decision, too much she didn't understand.

"I don't trust any of you." she spoke quietly. He nodded once. "But... those four were my friends. They still are." Blake took a breath. "As long as you don't do wrong to me, my friends, or my planet, I won't stop you."

Teal'c never changed his gaze. "Acceptable."

A scant few seconds later Jackson returned, catching both their attentions. In his hands were two white cups, looking like paper at first glance. He set one down close to Blake and handed the other to Teal'c, who took his with a laconic nod to the bespectacled man. Wrapping her finger around the warm cup, the faunus noted the odd feel; it was similar to plastic, but not entirely. Though soft, it seemed sturdy enough to hold the drink inside. Brushing off yet another round of questions, she lifted it up to cautiously sniff the hot tea.

"I know its not the best. Stuff here tends to be freeze dried and packaged before getting shipped in bulk." Jackson said apologetically as he sat down, observing how she carefully tilted the cup to sip.

Internally she was feeling cold fear; she had no reason to trust Teal'c. For all she knew, he was about to turn to Jackson and tell him what he discovered. What would happen to her was something she could only imagine. But as much as it worried her, she had to play along with the charade. For the time being, that meant tasting the Earth made tea.

Lowering the cup, Blake first analyzed the flavor of the provided tea, then pondered how she was going to word her response. In the end she reluctantly decided on, "Its not the worst."

"Indeed." Teal'c spoke simply, taking a drink of the steaming coffee.

Blake thought the tea tasted awful, clearly showing her the maker was a cheap fool. But for as bad as it was, Blake did mean what she said. She just didn't elaborate the worst tea she ever had was the one time Zwei had slobbered in her favorite cup when she wasn't looking. It took Weiss freezing her into a block of ice to prevent the corgi's unfortunate demise that day.

" _Then its settled._ So, where were we?" Jackson clapped his hands together, probably eager to share his accumulated knowledge with her. Teal'c resumed his statuesque pose to watch her dispassionately, like he didn't just discover her eavesdropping a minute ago.

"Well, I was wondering... _Gather what weapons and equipment you deem appropriate from the armory, then get to the Gateroom. You leave in one hour. Dismissed._ " Blake suddenly blinked and cleared her throat once again, obvious enough for Jackson to frown questionably at her.

"Actually-" she began, but she was interrupted by the door the General vanished to swinging open. As both of the men glanced to the entrance, Blake picked herself up in preparation, pushing the poor excuse for tea away.

Jaune walked out, swaying unsteadily. His features were shaking, and he was breathing shallowly. But there was a glint to his eye which showed relief, even happiness. It lasted until he glanced over the trio, opening his mouth in preparation of greeting the men when he saw her. The joyous look scrunched up in evident confusion.

When Blake cleared her throat again, she became aware of how raw it was feeling.

"Um, thank you for your time Dr. Jackson, Teal'c." she said quickly, pushing herself up from the seat.

"Uh, you're welcome?" the former said hesitantly, raising an eyebrow as she left the chair behind. The latter nodded once.

Jaune took the hint and nodded to the men before powering off, leading the way. Blake followed him, distantly aware of O'Neill walking out of the room as well. She did catch Jackson asking Teal'c, "What was that all about?"

Down the flight of stairs she approached half an hour ago, Blake dismissed the claustrophobia from her state of mind. Once they were in the hallway he stopped to glance at her in concern. "You okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine." Blake replied quickly, checking her surroundings to see if they were secluded enough. While there were still people going to and fro, more than earlier she noted, there weren't any faces she recognized. She deemed it acceptable.

"Okay, just, it looked like you wanted to get out of there right now." he explained with a brief nod, adjusting his footing.

"Something like that. Um, congratulations." Blake offered with a shrug of her own, mustering a smile. She spied a detail on his jacket that she was certain wasn't there before, a patch on his shoulder the size of her palm. It was a blue star surrounded by a white circle, with several bars of white and blue extending out like wings.

"Thanks-wait." Jaune suddenly frowned, eyes widening as his form tensed. A cold feeling sunk into Blake's guts, and she had to force herself to stay out of a combat stance.

"You were..." he stopped to look around, trying but failing to conceal his fear. Apparently satisfied, he leaned in closer to her, worriedly asking, "You were listening in?" in a soft voice. Not a whisper, since the sound would carry farther if done that way. Gulping, she nodded.

"I'm sorry, but I had to know what you were talking about." Blake apologized in the same manner, determined to defend herself.

Jaune took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a second.

"Its... I don't blame you. Um, I'm not mad." he hurriedly corrected, waving his hands placatingly. The tension in Blake faded, though it wasn't dissipating. She already decided she wasn't going to let her guard down in this place, not until they returned to Beacon. "Its just, well, if they knew you could listen in like that, then you'd be deemed a security risk. I swear I'm not going to say anything, but seriously, if you get caught, you'll be in _big_ trouble."

"Define big." she said lowly, narrowing her eyes; thinking of Teal'c flatly explaining her open secret to the rest of them made her involuntarily shudder. Jaune looked away, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

"I... don't know actually. But I know it'll be bad." he took a deep breath, dropping his head for a moment. Blake idly shifted her weight to one foot, wondering what he was going to do next. All she could do was play along. "Um, do you want to go to the others?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

A man in a green and black splotched uniform strolled by, glancing at them weirdly the whole time. Catching a disdainful mutter of " _Flyboys_." under the man's breath as he shook his head made Blake both curious and resignedly frustrated at her superior hearing.

"What's his problem?" she felt the need to ask. Jaune looked to the man she pointed at, catching him as he walked around a corner. He sighed, giving a lackluster roll of his eyes.

"Huh, him. He's one of the Marines. They're a bunch of elitist jerks." he explained while turning back to face her. "They don't like the Air Force guys much."

"...I see. Is there a reason why?" she asked carefully, crossing her arms with a small frown. He shrugged noncommittally, not nearly as fearful now.

"Its sort of an unspoken rule for the different services to not like each other. They usually give it a rest when there's a crisis. Anyway, what do you wanna do?" he asked, moving his arm to get his blood flowing.

"Lets..." Blake trailed off for a moment in thought, looking away while she put a hand to her chin.

"I guess I could show you around. We do have some time to burn." he offered. The dark haired girl shook her head.

"Only an hour before we have to leave. Although." she glanced back to him carefully, "What exactly is the plan? I missed out on that part of the conversation."

Jaune glanced around for eavesdroppers, but he stopped and took a deep breath.

"What am I thinking?" he muttered to himself, giving a small shake of his head. "If anyone asks, I told you how the briefing went on the way, okay?"

"Of course." she replied with a nod. Apparently satisfied, Jaune took off at a sedate pace down the hallway. He was moving slow enough for Blake to go to his side, though she let him lead the way since she had no idea where anything was.

"Okay." he said softly, but not excessively quietly. Enough so she could hear without telling everyone they were passing. "The plan is for us, your team and mine, to head back to Remnant on our own. We'll tell Ozpin, wait, is he still the headmaster?" he suddenly asked with a frown.

"Yeah." Blake confirmed with a small intake of breath. And that was all she was going to tell him for now; she imagined JNPR were going to be as shocked as them once they laid eyes on Beacon. Idly she pondered if it was the universe's way of balancing things out.

He looked away for a second, some relief flashing over his features. "Good to know some things haven't changed. Anyway, we're going to tell them the basics, and let him know SG-1s on its way."

"How are they getting there?" she gave him a questioning look, distantly wondering what the Earthers would think of the sight of them. The answer seemed to be bland indifference, given that very few of the people paused to give the duo a second glance.

"The _USAF_ _Prometheus_. Its a starship." Jaune quickly explained. Blake nodded automatically, frowning in thought.

"So, like an airship, but it travels through space." she checked, musing on the mental image. The idea of a ship traveling through space was the easiest thing for her to understand, even if her knowledge of space itself was poor compared to these people. The Stargates didn't spontaneously grow by themselves, they had to be seeded in the first place.

"Pretty much. The _Prometheus_ is the only one Earth has for now, but I've heard rumors they're planning on building more." he explained conversationally.

"Have you seen it?" Blake asked. She noticed he didn't look lost; by the way he kept looking to the gibberish filled signs, he seemed to be searching for something. Perhaps his training involved mapping the mountain blindfolded, or he had traveled around here enough to know where he was at any point.

"Rode on it once, special circumstances. It... wasn't a good trip." Jaune's expression flickered, not quite a grimace. "Mechanical bugs." he said under his breath, shaking his head.

Blake nodded, wishing he would explain. But she knew the look he displayed, and decided to let the case rest. In the meantime there was a more pressing concern. "So, where are we going?"

"The closest armory." he answered promptly, his thoughts moving away from whatever unpleasant memories were floating around in his mind.

"For Ruby and Yang?" she asked, causing him to nod. The area they had walked into had narrower walls, but to compensate there were fewer people. Blake was grateful for the latter fact, though she wished she could go outside the mountain for a few hours. To see what Earth was really like, outside of a military base.

Her bow twitched, happening at the same time she froze. Jaune noticed her stopping and fumbled through a misstep in order to turn around, concern written on his features. "What's the matter?"

"I hear gunfire." Blake told him, trying to locate where the muffled pops were coming from. He glanced around as well, unknowingly homing in on the same direction she was.

"That way." he said distantly, one of his hands lifting up to point to the source of the sounds. Seeing him relax should have put Blake completely at ease, with him being the de facto expert on this place. "That's the closest major armory to the briefing room."

"So..." she glanced to him expectantly.

"I think that's where Ren took them. There's two other armories on this level, but since this is the closest, I'd figure that's where he'd go." Jaune explained with a jerked thumb towards the sounds.

When he turned to the direction, Blake took a deep breath and followed him. Sure enough the pops were getting louder the closer she got to wherever the armory was, which he seemed to know. It ran counter to both her instincts and her Huntress training to walk to the source instead of running. Every part of her was trying to charge towards the sounds, so she could help whoever it was that was being attacked. A rapid chatter of pops made her suck in a breath, looking away to force herself under control.

The gunfire cut out a few seconds before they rounded a corner, showing a door with a sign which said 'Armory 2B' in bold print. Blake's innards clenched, unconsciously fearing the worst. Jaune took a breath before going to the door, showing faint worry. It clicked when his hand was a dozen centimeters away, causing him to back away. Swinging inward, the thick door moved seemingly on its own accord. Until the one who was leaving cleared the frame, discovering the two individuals outside.

Jaune immediately snapped out a salute, getting out a curt "Major Smith."

Whatever unease Blake felt for the automatic action was secondary to the Earther nodding in acknowledgment, who yanked the thick door behind him shut. Smith began to open his mouth, but his sharp gaze noticed the new patch on Jaune's shoulder as he lowered the arm. He blinked once, the closest thing to surprise the faunus had seen of him.

"Arc, you were promoted to sergeant?" he questioned, a faint edge of actual emotion in his tone.

"Yes sir. General Hammond." Jaune answered in a similar tone. No amount of the disquieting change they did to him, that he willingly put himself through rather, could mask the pride in his voice. Major Smith nodded once.

"Congratulations Arc." he said simply, turning to Blake next. Watching Jaune shakily nod out of the corner of her eye caused her to question how often the man gave out any sort of praise. It could wait, for now she was being held by his attention.

When she opened her mouth to acknowledge him, Smith raised a hand with an extended finger to silence her. Frowning, Blake crossed her arms while she watched his brow wrinkle in thought.

"Blake... Bellon, no, Bella. Belladonna. Correct?" he probed.

"That's right." she confirmed neutrally.

"Thought so." he spoke, half to himsef. "I have heard some... interesting tales concerning you and the others. Speaking of which." he turned back to Jaune, reaching for his back pocket. Both of them raised an eyebrow when he pulled out a folded piece of black leather, a wallet. The Major promptly opened it up to withdraw a slip of green paper, which he held out to the blond.

"Um, sir?" Jaune went confusedly, looking between him and the slip of paper. Blake couldn't see many details about it other than it had a detailed portrait of a bearded man in the center, and emboldened twenties in the corners.

"Arc, take it." Smith said, an unmistakable order. Gulping, the blond snagged it from his offered grasp, hurriedly stuffing the paper into a pocket. "Good. Now before you ask, I'm just doing this on Walsch's behalf. He's going to pay me back the moment I find him."

Upon noticing Blake's raised eyebrow, Jaune glanced helplessly at her. Smith wasn't beholden to the same rules he was, so when he saw the silent question on her features he turned to explain. "Its a competition between many of the personnel here to see who can come up with the best story to share. I personally don't approve, but it helps the men and women here blow off steam."

"And Jaune..." Blake prompted, unmoving for the moment. She may not have shared the innate dislike of the man Ruby freely showed off, but that didn't mean she had a positive opinion of him.

"Won a bet. The reward is cash." Smith explained dryly. Internally she ah'd, finally having an idea for what they used for money. "Now, most of the gangs in there. Major Carter is inside too, so my job here is done. And Arc." he glanced to Jaune, who stiffened.

"Sir?"

"Remember when I said I still owe you one? After dealing with them, consider us effectively even. When you see Walsch or Roy next, you're due for some apologies." he said simply, walking away the second he was finished. They both watched him strude away without a backwards look, until he vanished from sight.

Once he was gone, Blake turned her dry gaze to Jaune, who chuckled sheepishly. "Um..."

"Let's get inside." she said again. He nodded vigorously, snapping to the door with justified haste. The odd juxtaposition between the steel like discipline and the nearly ridiculous game the soldiers played did nothing but remind her of how little she knew about everything here. Though she mused it wasn't unheard of, since she knew first year teams often did something similar regarding their kills.

Her thoughts were put on hold when Jaune opened the door, holding it open for her to enter. Sweeping her gaze around, Blake identified the room's occupants as she spotted them. Weiss was standing beside a recognizable (if small) firing range, grimacing uncomfortably. Her moving her head alerted the others, from Ren and Nora standing on opposite sides of Yang, to Ruby situated beside the former, tentatively holding her arms out to her sister. Pyrrha was standing off to the side with crossed arms, abandoning the focus on whatever her friend was doing. Blake noted how damp her shortened hair appeared, hinting towards a rushed shower. Major Carter was close by the gathering, apparently watching over whatever it was they were doing. While everyone spared a glance their way, Yang was facing down the short range, devoted to whatever was in front of her.

Without exception, everyone had on a pair of thick plastic muffs over their ears.

"Oh, not good." Jaune mumbled, immediately looking to Blake. "Cover your ears."

Blake had no time to ask what he meant, for Yang took the chance to heft what looked like a bulky rifle up to her shoulder, aiming down the space while everyone hurriedly planted hands on the muffs. "Firing in five four threetwoone."

She clamped both hands on her head, digging her fingers into the cat ears a second before it happened. A tremendous boom sounded out, deafening in the enclosed space. But it didn't stop at one; there was a quarter of a second delay between the booms, the effect was barely distinguishable from the others. Gritting her teeth together, Blake cringed through the pain of the powerful noise beating down on her, like some demented drum. The powerful booms cared nothing for her pain as it blotted out everything else. It didn't let up at all, the gunfire going on and on. She tried to count the shots, but it was next to impossible.

Soon, not soon in enough in her ardent opinion, the firing ceased. In its place was a special type of ringing in Blake's ears, politely informing her she was deaf for the time being. Jaune hesitantly lowered his hands from his own head, wincing through his own version of noise filled pain. For the gathered six, she noticed them hesitantly tugging off their own muffs.

In the center the arbiter of destruction lifted the bulky gun so it was pointed at the ceiling, casually removing a large drum magazine. Twisting around and yanking her muffs down, Yang looked over the group with the third largest grin Blake had ever seen. If she could hear right now, the black haired girl was certain she'd be wincing from a high pitched squee.

"Guys? I think I'm in love." she said gleefully, at least Blake assumed she did. Reading lips did have its uses.

"That was..." Weiss trailed off, frowning as she tried to describe what just happened. Ren and Ruby sighed, while Nora practically bounced.

"Told you the AA-12 was cool!" she proclaimed, pumping a fist. Pyrrha nodded mutedly, glancing over to them.

While the collected friends mingled, Carter looked to be playing overseer to the semi organized chaos. Blake walked closer, feeling her hearing start to come back to her while watching the blonde woman. Yang and Nora high five'd, the former not letting go of her new toy. Ren nodded at someone talking, though she couldn't tell who. Jaune shared an intelligible word with Pyrrha over something, as Weiss spared a critical look at the wall the blonde shot at, one which was thoroughly torn up. On the bench were several other weapons, including a P90 close to Ruby.

You get to shoot that?" she asked once she reached the smaller girl, her voice feeling weird without the accompanying sound. Ruby nodded, something very close to glee flashing over her features. Blake was certain she would be bouncing on her feet if she wasn't trying so hard to keep the Earthers from knowing how she felt.

"It was cool. The grips were uncomfortable, but there was so little recoil, and its so accurate, plus its fully ambi, so you can use whatever hand you wanted-" Ruby gushed, plucking the small gun sans magazine up to show her. The fact the black haired girl couldn't hear her didn't seem to register through her excitement. "And you gotta see what they did to their weapons. You'll love it."

"What'd they do?" Blake asked at last, catching movement out of the corner of her eye.

It was Carter, picking up a compact shape which was even smaller than the P90, about the same size as one of Yang's gauntlets. Holding onto a recognizable grip, the woman jerked the object once towards the range. To Blake's amazement it unfolded, several components springing out to form a small scoped rifle, similar to the Gateroom's guards although heavily customized. On the side was some blocky letters that read "Carter Special." The blonde woman was grinning as she aimed it down range, and Blake had zero doubt Ruby was staring slack jawed at the sight. Very likely she was about to clamor for the chance to look it over.

"You can credit Ren and Nikos for helping me build this weapon. There's no way this will ever be mass produced, but who said it had to be?" her silent lips explained. As much as she enjoyed being reunited with her friends, Blake found herself wishing she had tarried a bit longer.

"And even better, Yang didn't shoot herself this time!" Nora proudly proclaimed. Blake mutedly glanced to the formerly happy blonde, watching her countenance go from glee to dawning anger at a perilous rate. She though she saw the grip of the AA-12 start to buckle under her tightening grip.

00000

 _"Um, Ancients?"_

 _O'Neill chuckled at something while he played with his pen, while the other three members of SG-1 exchanged looks. Carter and Jackson glanced to each other, thoughts churning. Teal'c and Hammond both oversaw the growing mass of confusion, the former unresponsive._

 _"Uh." Jaune glanced to the General carefully, silently asking permission of a man far above his own station. When he nodded, the blond took a quick breath before speaking. "The Ancients were a precursor race that existed tens of thousands of years ago. Among other things, they built the gates." he finished with a jabbed thumb in the general direction of the room they arrived in. Ruby blinked, so did Yang and Blake. Weiss did not; she was too busy frowning._

 _"That's an overly simplistic description but its not wrong." Jackson spoke up, mercifully taking the girl's attentions off of him. Ren's dry look and Nora's playful nudge on the sighing Jaune didn't go unnoticed, nor did Pyrrha's cringing shrug at him._

 _"You know, I was going to ask who made those things, but I'm much more curious on how this matters here." Blake took the chance to interject._

 _"Right. Well, the Ancients were responsible for creating much of the advanced technology you can find throughout the galaxy, whether made directly or copied by lesser civilizations. For example, most Goa'uld technology is based on Ancient tech to one degree or another. But as Arc just said, the Stargate network was their greatest achievement." Carter explained, adopting the air of a teacher. No small amount of admiration was in her tone._

 _"So, what happened to them?" Ruby asked, genuinely curious. Even Yang had tuned in to their conversation._

 _"They turned to fluffy smoke." O'Neill added idly._

 _Jackson coughed, as Hammond leveled another look at the man. "You'll have to forgive a lot of the pseudo spiritual terminology for this part, since accurate terms are in short supply. While much of their population was wiped out by a nasty plague, a large portion of them underwent a process called Ascension. They literally rose to a higher plane of existence."_

 _"So, they became gods." Yang tried to summarize, seeing her friends on the other side of the table wince to different degrees._

 _"Incorrect, but not inaccurate." Teal'c spoke simply._

 _"Yep. They fit the bill pretty well though." O'Neill commented, before abruptly turning to the ceiling. "If you weren't so_ lazy about it _." he said loudly, turning back to the now muted four. A glance changed the number to a much more reasonable twelve. "They're watching us right now. Seriously."_

 _"I fear for your sanity O'Neill." Teal'c rumbled in his seemingly normal way. The Colonel chuckled and ribbed the much larger man, failing to make him budge at all._

 _"Ha,T's sense of humor." he brushed off, his tittering increasing at the unconvinced looks everyone was giving him._

 _Carter brought her hands together, composing her thoughts. "Moving on, we don't have a great understanding of Ascended beings. Most of our knowledge of them comes from second hand sources."_

 _"Yeah, second hand." O'Neill deliberately glanced at Jackson. Were he the only one who looked at him, Ruby would've been left curious but willing to let it go. If her friends didn't pointedly turn away from him too, poorly hiding whatever it was they felt._

 _"But what we do know." Jackson said forcefully, rubbing his own palms together. "Is one of their highest beliefs. The Ancients strongly believe in the idea of free will, that each and every being should be free to choose their own path in life. To this end, they are big on the whole nonintervention deal."_

 _"They have punished their own for interfering in lower planes on several occasions." Teal'c added._

 _Ruby chanced a peek at the others on both sides of the table; Yang and Blake were both frowning, privately thinking the big man's question applied to the Earthers in full. Ren (the sole one to appear largely at ease), Nora, Jaune, and Pyrrha had a sheepish look to them, each one knowing how ridiculous it all sounded but unable to share their experiences. Weiss already had a frown, but now her brow was beginning to crease._

 _"For them to do anything on this plane, even something as roundabout as messing with dreams, is very rare. And without exception, always has a purpose." he explained, a thoughtful look coming over him._

 _"Which is?" Weiss question._

 _Ren had the succinct answer. "Besides them, who knows."_

" _Uh, question." Yang spoke up. "How does 'staying uninvolved' in this plane or whatever, and messing with her dreams mix?" she questioned, holding up her waving left hand at the pale toned girl, who nonetheless nodded in agreement._

" _It is possible this Ancient convinced you to agree with their plan, then erased your memory of the conversation once you woke up." Cater offered with a shrug._

" _You did have an option too." Pyrrha said as well. When the four snapped their gazes to her, she visibly composed herself. "You said you woke up with the compulsion to head to Forever Fall. But it must have crossed your mind that you didn't_ have _to go."_

" _In your place, I would have tried talking her out of it." Ren told them._

 _The guilty looks on Blake and Yang were all the answer they needed, even if the expressions on Ruby and Weiss begged to differ. Nora shrugged nonchalantly. "Don't feel bad. How were you supposed to know?"_

" _Rules lawyering at its finest. Tramples on the spirit of the law while still following it to the letter." O'Neill said wryly, appearing utterly unsurprised at the tale. Or much of anything for that matter._

" _Debating their motivations can wait." Hammond spoke loudly, immediately causing every one of the rooms occupants to glance at him, though the looks they had were hardly uniform. "Right now, we need to focus on what we can do. Thank you for your time ladies." he said as he rose from the table._

" _So sir?" O'Neill asked of him first, finally dropping his pen and lowering his chair's legs back to the floor._

" _O'Neill, Arc, my office. The rest of you are off duty for the next hour. Feel free to explore the SGC at your leisure."_

00000

 **A/N: I think I have the habit of obsessing over little details rather than the actual plot. Could explain the 7.4k words this time around.**

 **Edited**


	9. Somewhere new pt3

**A/N: Again KisaragiKei is away, busy partying with some awesome folk. I'd begrudge him, except he's in a very fun place (for his sake I'll refrain from dropping any names) I'd love to visit someday. So second verse same as the first, not as refined as usual.**

 _ **B/N: I am not partying. Believe in nothing he says. Don't drink the koolaid and especially you Persephone, don't do it.**_

 **Unrelated anecdote: this chapter was actually supposed to be the last part of the previous one, but between the unwieldy length and the long span since my last update, I put the thing up as it was. So consider this as eight part 2.**

00000

Running a hand over the flat edge of the sword, Ruby marveled at the weapon in her grip, the last of the four she got to personally inspect. What she was seeing both amazed her and reinforced the pit in her stomach, one she had from the moment she rediscovered Jaune. The sword was a lot like how she remembered, but with several crucial differences that served to mark the changes.

 _Just like its owner_ a voice in her head whispered, no matter how much she tried to block the thought.

The last time she beheld Crocea Mors, Ruby saw a weapon whose best days may have been behind it, wielded by someone who perhaps wasn't as skilled as they should have been. While the latter was still something she had yet to judge, the former was plainly a thing of the past.

The grip was now a shade of black, covered by a leathery material that a quick slice into the empty air proved proved to hold superlatively. A tiny pommel rested at the other end, a dense lump of black metal which could be used on its own as well as balancing out the rest of the sword. The guard retained its old shape, though it was now painted black. Of the blade itself, she could see no scratches, cracks, or imperfections. It was a length of silvery metal, disrupted by an odd decoration: a flat vein of the same black metal as the pommel.

Lifting it up for the tenth time, Ruby once again noted its lack of weight. She had certainly grown stronger over the years, but there was no doubt the sturdy weapon was lighter than before. If Ren hadn't used baby talk in explaining the metal's properties, she would have been far more concerned about it being too flimsy. She still thought so actually, though a brief demonstration on Jaune's shield proved his point.

"Trinium Titanium alloy." she murmured, letting the weird terms Ren and Carter used flow off her tongue. The latter's description sounded like some of the rare blacksmithing supplies that were and would remain forever out of her price range, but the former was something else entirely.

In the armory Carter had explained it as, "A rare element not found on Earth, and presumably Remnant. Its a hundred times the strength of steel but a hundredth of the weight."

Blake had objected to the stuff being able to do that, while holding a sample of the metal at the same time. Ruby and her sister didn't get why she was bothered by it, Yang even trying to bargain away something of hers for a few kilograms in spite of Weiss face palming. Carter had politely declined the deal.

Ruby glanced at the shield, resting against the wall next to the crate she was sitting on. It too was made of the same stuff as the sword, and like the blade, the colors had been seeped away. The old bronze pattern and trimming were now a shade of glossy black, the same substance as the pommel and the interior vein. Unconsciously she ran a single finger over the smooth metal, recalling the even stranger name it was called.

"Naquadah." she breathed softly. According to Carter, with Nora adding her own gleeful insights, the heavy element was even rarer than Trinium, and had a wide range of uses. From bombs (they all shied away from explaining just how powerful of bombs), to an incredibly potent energy source, to building material. There was one specific example the woman cited which caught her attention, all of the visitors in fact.

What she was feeling was the same stuff used to build the Stargates.

Engrossed as she was, Ruby wasn't deaf, if only thanks to the uncomfortable earmuffs they had to wear in the armory. The door was slung open, making her jerk the weapon down to glance it's way. Despite proving most of her perceptions wrong in the several hours she had been on Earth, she wasn't shaking her innate distrust of the soldiers here, consciously or unconsciously. So once she saw the two people striding inside, Ruby took a quiet breath of relief.

"Okay, made some guesses, but I think this is everything. All the stuff we arrived with at least." Jaune said with a nod as he walked into the armory, holding a large green duffel bag which he unceremoniously dumped on a cleared table.

Following him in, Pyrrha set an exact copy of the bag beside his, grabbing an orange magazine to place on top of it after a second of thought. That done, she looked to the side with a small smile.

"Ren, you're a life saver." she said with undisguised relief, fixated on the five upright black magazines standing in a neat row. The sable haired young man nodded back, placing a sixth beside the rest instead of replying. Visible on the top were a couple of brass rifle cartridges, with many more below.

Ruby stood up from the crate of equipment while snagging the shield. Collapsing it over the otherwise excellent blade, she nodded to herself and made her way to Jaune, checking on Nora as well.

The orange haired girl was still busy on the same thing as the last time she looked; on the table she claimed was one of the weapons with several of its magazines beside it, along with a blocky radio, a Zat'nik'tel, and several plastic wrapped bricks she wouldn't let her touch. Finishing the line of stuff was her hammer in its carrying form. Magnhild's steel body was covered by the strong alloy, with the head of the hammer sporting six centimeters of solid Naquadah.

Ren was occupied with his own equipment, with his modified twin pistols clipped to his thighs instead of in the sleeves. Stormflower had a noticeably different feel on both of the bayonets, which the layer of green paint couldn't hide. He explained it as being pure trinium rather than an alloy, with the rest of the weapon reworked with titanium-steel components instead.

The newly minted Sergeant did a double take in surprise at Ruby walking up to him, chuckling bashfully after a moment. "Hey, sorry. Forgot you were in here."

"It's okay. I like the workmanship they did on it." Ruby said, holding it out for him to take. She spied one detail on his waist that she doubted was standard issue: his old belt. On the other side she saw a conventional holster with a recognizable Zat held in place.

"Thanks." he said, accepting the blade. He clipped Crocea Mors to his belt, pausing for a second to move it to a comfortable spot. Placing a hand on the hilt, Jaune softly smiled at the weapon. Once he referred to it as 'an old heirloom' with reluctance; she wondered what he called it now.

"So, Ruby." Pyrrha said, causing the girl to turn to her as Jaune busied himself with getting ready.

The redhead facing away from her lifted up a black colored rifle, akin to the ones the guards carried. When Yang tried that one out, Ren had called it an 'M16' and explained it as the standard rifle of the kingdom's military-country, she mentally corrected. For whatever reason they were insistent on not calling the nation a kingdom.

"Yeah?" she replied, looking over her clashing form. Akoúo was slung over her back, with Miló tucked underneath. There was a sliver sheen to both weapons now, with the last several centimeters of the javelin's tip now being the same glossy black as in the sword. Its bronze tone came from the finish she used, no longer a property of the weapon itself. As she watched, both weapons were unslung to be set beside the rest of the equipment.

"I've been meaning to ask, since the last Vytal Festival was supposed to be hosted in Vale, you should have competed. How well did you do?" she asked casually, zipping her jacket up in order to grab her vest.

A lump formed in the younger girl's throat, leaving a hiccup like sound as her voice clenched. Pyrrha had the black vest in hand, but she paused to look at her strangely. Ruby averted her eyes, painful memories flashing in her mind like some twisted picture show. She had spent so much time fantasizing about her friend's safe return, that she glossed over the problems which arose since they disappeared.

Beside her Ren had finished putting on his own vest, tugging it to a comfortable spot. "Earlier I asked Yang something similar. She didn't give me a straight answer."

"It'd suck if you lost." Nora offered from her spot, shrugging apologetically while she was putting her arms through the vest's opening. "You did get pretty far at least, right?" she asked, zipping the covering up.

"You kidding? She probably made it to the finals." Jaune complimented from out the corner of her eye, starting on his own vest.

"I-I got far yeah." Ruby said quickly, looking away from all of them. She didn't want to lie, but she couldn't bring herself to tell them what really happened. How a nice woman she met turned out to be a monster in disguise, how a bedtime story was real, and how a horde of Grimm very nearly ensured they was nothing to return home to.

Most of all, she didn't want to tell them how she unwittingly helped the crisis explode.

"That sucks. Still wish I could've seen it." Nora shrugged off. "So, Zats or M9s?" she asked, glancing at the alien weapon.

"Zats. Lets face it, if the P90 doesn't cut it, the pistol won't. No offense." Jaune added hurriedly, sparing an anxious look at Ren. The young man shrugged without looking his way.

"It's fine." he said indifferently, grabbing equipment from the table to place either in his pockets or on the vest somewhere. Pyrrha handed him his scroll once he finished taking his share of stuff, which he mumbled a thanks to before stuffing it into a pocket.

Ruby shifted her weight from one foot to the other, feeling out of her depth. She started to go to Jaune again to see if he needed help, but looking over him showed there was nothing she could do. Ren was the next obvious pick, though once she thought it over the red huntress realized she didn't get the chance to chat with Pyrrha yet; as a bonus she was the closer of the two. Coming up to her, Ruby caught sight of the blond handing over Nora's own scroll in the corner of her vision.

"So, why are you taking that?" she asked, gesturing to the M16. Pyrrha looked over while she was clipping a blocky radio (she assumed it was a radio, since it looked just like the one Jaune used on Cimmeria) onto her vest.

"Extra range and firepower. Its not as good as Miló I admit, but its good to be prepared in any case." she replied, lining up the curved box into the receiver to give the bottom a light slap. It locked it with a quiet click.

"Next paycheck says these won't do anything." Nora said loudly. Turning her head, she saw her lining up a magazine into her P90, using great care to make sure the parallel box was fed in properly. Reloading the small guns was one of precisely two complaints Ruby had with the weapon, on the same level as the hard to hold circular grips.

"You're probably right, but who knows? Maybe these will tear Grimm apart." Jaune said hopefully while he hefted his own SMG, plainly obvious he didn't believe it himself.

"Doubt it, but there's no point speculating." Pyrrha turned back to the table, grabbing a length of black strap to wrap diagonally over her torso. It was a harness with two clips, a design Ruby thought was weird. Checking on the others, she noted they all had the same type. When the redhead adjusted the second one so it was close to the barrel's edge, it clicked for her; they could just latch the Earther weapons in place with the setup, without risking the guns leaving their hands.

An idea occurred to Ruby once Pyrrha replaced both javelin and shield on her back, excitement flooding her despite how minor it was. "So, who did win-"

"Want me to carry that?" Ruby quickly interrupted, jabbing a finger at the large duffel. She blinked at her, evidently not anticipating the sudden request.

"Um, its just clothes. Thanks though." she replied, reaching for the carry strap. The red toned girl beat her to it, smiling unconvincingly.

"You're carrying a lot of stuff as is." she rightfully pointed out.

"Please, its just the clothes we arrived in. This one has mine and Nora's specifically." Pyrrha said, grabbing part of the strap herself.

"But if you carry too much, you'll get tired quickly. Then what?" Ruby added with a bright smile, tugging insistently. The older girl sighed and let go.

"You don't have to." she protested quietly, idly adjusting the M16 so it was pointed at the ground.

"But I want to." she refuted cheerfully. "Besides, you guys showed me around this place, its the least I could do." Ruby punctuated her sentence with hefting the duffel from the table. It weighed a lot more than she thought it would, and she couldn't help giving it an odd look once she pulled the strap over her head.

Ren held up his P90, racking the tiny latch which served to put a round in the chamber. Nodding in satisfaction, he clipped the weapon to his sling, testing for comfort before letting it dangle. But when he glanced to a tall locker on the end of the row of guns, something flickered over his features.

Ruby carefully trailed after him as he walked to it, catching Nora putting Magnhild on to finish the quartet. His hand paused when it was a few centimeters away from the locker, covered by the same fingerless gloves the others had. She raised an eyebrow at him taking a breath before grabbing the handle to swing it open. For a second she thought it held more of the terrible Zat weapons which dropped Yang so easily, but what he pulled out instead was far different.

"Ren." Ruby flinched, a hairsbreadth from using her semblance. Jerking herself around, she was stunned to see Pyrrha standing by her, somehow doing it without making a sound. The redhead offered her a small smile before turning back to her teammate. "What are you doing?"

The sable haired young man slowly turned, holding a tall staff in a two handed grip. Letting her eyes roam over it, Ruby was struck by its odd appearance; colored brown, with a elongated bulbous head on the top and a weirdly designed paddle like object on the bottom. She had the impression it was a weapon, but it wasn't like the Earth made ones. In fact, it seemed to have several cues in common with a Zat.

"I recall these having some effect in the cave while we were fighting, it'd be worth taking one along. To be prepared." Ren explained evenly, paraphrasing her. Nevertheless, there was a glint in his eyes Ruby didn't like.

"True." Pyrrha frowned, stepping closer with a free hand held out. "Still, how about I take the Staff? It's more my specialty anyway." she reached to grab the pole like weapon, but Ren yanked it out of the way.

"You're carrying too much as is." he said coldly, narrowing his eyes.

"Please, I insist-" she succeeded in grabbing it, but he refused to let go. Her forced expression faded, as he matched the look.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees. Taking a moment to observe the other two, she noted uneasily how both Jaune and Nora had paused where they were, not moving. She was missing something huge, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what.

Jaune turned around with an unreadable expression, taking a deliberately slow pace to reach the two. Pyrrha glanced over at him, reluctantly letting go to back up. Ren's hard stare was leveled on the blond instead. All the while, Ruby looked to each of them in turn, utterly lost.

"Ren." Jaune acknowledged, stopping an arms length away.

"We should take this along." he insisted, tightening his grip on the staff.

A weight seemed to settle on the young huntress, something that made her breath catch. Her fear was seeping away, leaving behind an eerie calm.

Jaune took a breath, a grimace flickering over him. "You're right. We should test out different tools to see what works, Staff weapons included. But." he held out an open hand, clearly asking for it but not grabbing, "That doesn't mean I want you to carry it."

"I have the least amount of gear right now. There's no reason why I shouldn't." Ren explained briskly, not moving.

"I know. But…" Jaune sighed, closing his eyes to tip his head back, perhaps struggling with his wording. "You know, I do have this shiny new Sergeant rank. Little more than an hour old at this point. I was hoping it'd be a few days before I started abusing it." he said casually, facing off center while he kept eye contact.

Ruby's jaw opened on its own, the shock great enough to overcome the odd numb feeling. How could he be so nonchalant about abusing his power, something which was anathema to everything it meant to be a Huntsman? To ignore their own codes meant becoming monsters worse than what they fought.

Ren's eyes narrowed.

"Is that an order?" he questioned lowly, staring at him dangerously.

"No, just thinking out loud. Bad habit I know. Stuff like I want Nora to take the Staff." Jaune tilted his head towards the orange haired girl in question, leaving Ruby confused at why she had yet to even turn around to face them. On top of everything else when she thought about it.

"And leave me underloaded." Ren countered, his tone icily cold.

A wry smile broke Jaune's otherwise uncomfortable stoney expression. "Nope. You're hauling the AT-4."

Ren blinked, his own cold expression shattering. Ruby hardly noticed, since she was witnessing Nora's entire posture being wracked by shock. The orange haired girl whirled around to stamp her foot on the concrete, hard enough to feel the tremor. Her face was contorted by incredulous rage as she gawked at Jaune.

"What!?" she exclaimed, "Why does he get the missile?!"

On his part Jaune turned her way, holding his hands up placating, with a nervous expression. Nevertheless, he had a relieved smile on.

"Because the last time you used one Captain Austin threatened to resign." he refuted calmly. A scowl overtook Nora, one of indignant rage.

"Austin said that?! I blew up that Al'kesh, remember!" she snarled.

"The crashed one? When the mission was to salvage it?" Pyrrha spoke up.

Nora looked away, shaking her fists futilely. "Well, there were Jaffa closing in. Lots. Like, a hundred."

"Funny, last time I asked you said there was eighty." Jaune chuckled, taking a deep breath before turning back to Ren with an open hand. She growled loudly.

Ren reluctantly offered the staff to Jaune, though the half scowl on his features didn't vanish. Ruby took a breath, discovering the pressure on her chest was seeping away. While its disappearance was good, she had a more immediate worry. As the sable haired young man backed away, she carefully approached him. His eyes remained on the staff, tracking it unnervingly.

"What was that all about?" she asked him. Pyrrha opened her mouth to speak, but a quick look by Ren caused her to clamp shut. Ruby raised an eyebrow when he turned her way, taking a breath to steady his nerves.

"Its nothing." he said quietly, audible over Nora's vocal grumbling.

As he moved to the section of the wall she wasn't allowed to browse, the red huntress glanced to Pyrrha questionably. The redhead sighed.

"Personal thing. He'll tell you some other day." she said carefully, giving him a measured look.

In Ruby's opinion, that didn't change anything. Ren continued to act tense, even as he came back with a large tube resembling a missile launcher draped over his back. The last thing he did was return to the still open staff locker, hesitating for a moment before grabbing something inside. A quick turn and a pair of small objects were tossed at Pyrrha, both of which she grabbed easily. One glance confirmed them to be a Zat and a pistol holster. Meanwhile Nora was outright pouting with the long staff in her grip, grimacing even as the blond went to retrieve a spare sling. Tying it on two points, he helped her move the weapon so it laid next to Magnhild. Nodding in satisfaction, Jaune glanced over the four, lingering on Ruby for a moment

"I said I would take it." she answered the unspoken question, resting a hand on the heavy duffel. A frown crossed him, but it passed quickly.

One final check on his friends showed them as ready as could be; Pyrrha was tightening the holster on her thigh, Ren idly tugged the missile's harness to a more comfortable spot, Nora was still quietly fuming at the staff forced into her possession while she felt along her tiny gun, and Jaune patted himself over one last time. For Ruby, the only things she lacked were Crescent Rose and a long list of answers.

"Alright, ready to go?" he asked them all.

"Sure am sir." Nora answered with a wide smirk. Janue's half smile was wracked by surprised as he spun around. "What? You're in charge, and you have the highest rank here sir." she mercilessly teased.

He stabbed a finger at her. " _No_. None of that."

Pyrrha smirked too, as Nora stifled a giggle.

"You're one step closer to officer _sir_." she politely informed, smiling easily.

"Seriously guys, stop it." Jaune snapped, pointing to her too.

"That's right, its what we're supposed to say _sir_." Ren spoke, a small smile coming over him. Jaune's face was becoming more and more red by the second.

"Uh, what they said. Sir." Ruby nervously added with a forced smile. The tittering came to an abrupt halt; she froze, wondering what she did wrong. She couldn't stop herself from shrinking back when Jaune slapped his face, groaning as he pointed to her.

"First off Ruby, you're a civilian. You don't call me sir, ever. I can get in trouble if anyone heard that. Second." he lifted his head to give each of them a glowering look, which failed to stop their teasing looks. "My first official order: do _not_ call me sir. Got it?"

"Whatever you say, but I think its time for my Marine impression." Nora suggested devilishly, leering with a smirk.

"Last I checked, SG-5 and SG-16 are at the Alpha Site, so go ahead." Pyrrha invited with a gesture. Both women giggled, as Ren leveled a smirk at him.

Jaune stared testily. "Done yet?"

"You make it way too easy to pick on you." Nora snickered.

Groaning dramatically, Jaune rolled his eyes.

"Alright, breaks over. Lets go." he strolled to the door instead of continuing, the others following in his wake. Ruby trailed after the last (Nora in this case), unable to stop herself from taking a gulp of the stuffy air.

The red toned girl perked up; she saw it was almost over. Ruby had succeeded in her impromptu goal beyond what she imagined possible; her friends were not just alive, but safe and sound. The changes they underwent had her nervous, but now that she knew why they did it, she could understand. And now, they were heading back to Beacon. Going home.

The͟n ͟Wh͘at?

Ruby almost tripped when the idea hit her, stumbling over her own feet. The suddenness of the thought had caught her off guard entirely, leaving her vulnerable to a host of new uncomfortable thoughts. What was going to happen next?

In the span of one morning, Ruby had found out there were things hiding in the night sky that were all too capable of destroying everything she knew, they could do it with all the ease of swatting a fly. Nowhere was safe, no place existed which couldn't be attacked. Monsters that stole everything someone was, controlling them as some demented puppet, were out there, ready to enslave everyone. The four in front of her had spent much of the past three years fighting those horrors, seeing things Ruby couldn't imagine. Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren had seen and done things which frightened her more than she wanted to admit. What were they going to do now? What was she going to do?

Coming up to the thick metal door, Ruby strayed to one side of the hallway to avoid getting trampled by a squad sized group of marching soldiers, forcing away the discomfort at seeing each member of JNPR pause to give the lead woman a salute. She did notice the row of Remnant natives garnered some odd looks from the passing men and women, but none stopped to make a comment. She could only guess how her friends would respond.

Finally she found herself coming up to the recognizable entrance, one of two ways she saw to get into the Gateroom. Currently it was open, allowing the five to file in easily. Ruby heard the voices before she was inside, her team electing to head right there while JNPR went to get ready; she felt like tagging along for one last jaunt through this place.

Hearing her sister's exasperated tone initially made her tense up, but once she could firmly make out what they were saying she relaxed. "For the last time, I thought my Aura was going to block it. I didn't know, Ren didn't say a thing until after I got zapped. Besides, not like I shot anyone else."

"Still, that was dangerously irresponsible." Blake's unseen voice countered.

The trio were in the middle of the room, while Major Carter and a guard stood a short distance away. The woman had her arms crossed, with her foot was tapping on the floor. Ruby had the impression she'd been listening to them squabble for some time now. What made the red toned girl perk up was the sight of her team's weapons; Ember Cecelia, Myrtenaster, and Gambol Shround were back were the belonged, looking no worse for wear. A glance informed her the tired looking guard was holding Crescent Rose.

"You tell my dad, I'll punch you. Not kidding this time." Yang threatened with a stabbed finger.

Sensing movement, the ad hoc group turned to the arrivals. The teammates blinked in unison, maintaining a blank stare at their number. It lasted until Yang snorted, covering her mouth and turning away. Ruby trailed around them to go to the man holding her scythe, catching Jaune in the middle of a drawn out sigh.

"You should head back, I think you forgot something." Yang sniggered. This time both Pyrrha and Nora joined the blond in rolling their eyes.

"Were only going a few kilometers." Weiss said, raising a brow at them.

"Not carrying that much stuff." Jaune protested, Nora and Ren filtering away to get closer to the Gate.

Ruby held out her arms, and the soldier immediately half shoved the compacted weapon into her grip. He mouthed 'thank you' before striding away, off to do anything else. Paying half a mind to the ongoing conversation, she fell back on habit to check over her weapon. She insisted to herself that it wasn't because she thought the Earthers had been rough on it, accidentally or intentionally.

"Yeah, looks like it." Yang got out, past her bought of giggles.

"No seriously." Jaune glanced down to fumble with the items on him, "I only got my gun, my sword, clothes, IDC, radio…" he trailed off.

Beside him Pyrrha let her rifle dangle off its sling, crossing her arms with a faintly bemused look at her leader.

"Jaune, you're digging yourself a deeper hole here." she said softly. He groaned and slapped his face.

Finding a smudge from a greasy finger, Ruby frowned and used her sleeve to quickly buff it off. Beyond that, she saw no sign of abuse or tampering. There was still a bullet chambered, thanks to a quick rack of the bolt. But without popping the magazine out, she had no way to tell if she still had all her ammunition. Ruby wasn't going to check now; it wouldn't be a good sign of trust if she showed off that much suspicion.

"Alright." Carter started, catching the attentions of them all, Jaune especially. "The _Prometheus_ will launch later this afternoon, it'll arrive at your homeworld in approximately thirty five hours. You need to inform someone in authority and make preparations for our arrival. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am." both Jaune and Pyrrha chorused; Ruby caught a flash of a frown come over all her friends; like her, they could do nothing about it.

"Alright. Good luck." Carter finished, walking away out the room and making a thumbs up gesture at the plate of glass.

Replacing Crescent Rose on her back, Ruby rejoined the main group as the other two did the same. As she mentally psyched herself up, she heard Jaune mutter, "Lets get this done." Unexpectedly Yang snorted, finding out in short order how many eyes were on her.

"Oh, right. You just put this tune in my head." she answered the unspoken question, shrugging forcefully.

After a second of thought she winced, in time for Jaune to ask, "How?"

"Um, Rolling Train right?" Ruby asked her, which she nodded to.

"Context?" Ren asked blandly, shifting his weight around as they waited.

"Rolling Train, by Smashing Melons. Its this overplayed song on the net." Weiss explained with a guarded shrug.

"Any good?" Nora asked interestedly, fiddling with her gun's harness.

"It was. But after you've heard it a million times its not. Almost wanna go back to Achieve Men's new album." Yang shuddered dramatically, which Ruby nodded to.

"Never could get into Achieve Men." Pyrrha said idly, turning to the direction of the gate. Ruby observed her hands adjusting the harnessed rifle, continually bringing up a boot to tap on the floor.

As the closest, Weiss glanced over her impatient form. "Excited?"

"Very." Pyrrha replied, her gaze locked onto the Gate.

One by one they all turned to the alien construct, waiting. Ruby flinched when the inner ring began to grind away, moving an incomprehensible symbol over one of the chevrons. It clacked over the mark, glowing orange.

"I gotta say, this whole shebang was… kinda fun." Yang admitted with a shrug.

"Wish I could have gone outside for a while. Seen more of Earth." Blake spoke up, flicking her golden eyes around the bare room one more time.

Ren shook his head, briefly craning his head to her. "Bad idea. There's a snowstorm topside."

The red toned girl considered telling the others about what happened in the armory, but upon remembering his anger she rethought the idea. If he was willing to get upset at his own team, what would he do with his back to the wall? Ruby rolled her shoulders, deciding to keep quiet for now.

"Huh. I guess that's… yeah." Weiss shook off her thoughts, letting her head fall back to the ceiling. Ruby copied her, squinting at something very very high up. After a few seconds of examination, she was mostly certain she saw the ceiling. Why someone built a massive shaft, big enough to hold an entire building inside, just to contain one object was something she had no answers for.

"Kinda wish you guys could stick around a bit longer." Nora said wistfully. "There's so much cool stuff here you would love. A three oh two in action, area fifty one, some of the TV they got here, Jaune's apartment, and there's this restaurant that makes the best pancakes-"

"Wait a sec, go back." Blake interrupted with a raised hand, silencing her. She then turned to Jaune with a confused expression. "Apartment? Jaune, you have an apartment?"

In a seconds time the young man found himself under four pairs of eyes, brimming with questions. He took a shallow breath, flicking to Nora for a moment. The orange haired girl shrugged defensively.

"Yeah, knew this was going to come up sooner or later." he said softly, turning back to the Gate with an unreadable expression.

"C'mon, details." Yang prompted with a circular gesture, looking expectantly at him.

Jaune rolled his shoulders, idly adjusting the clothes duffel. "Its this little one bedroom place in Colorado Springs, that's a town about a twenty minute drive away from here. Not much to look at I admit, but hey."

"All the same, I'm amazed." Weiss spoke up, focused on him with a rare impressed smile. "Not just that they let you get your own place, but you get paid enough to afford it." she said, getting a mirthless chuckle from him.

"Only got the lease last week actually, haven't formally moved in yet. Made all those assimilation classes worth it though." he snorted bemusedly, needing a second to notice what he said had given Ruby a small frown. "Those are just courses on the culture here, its so you can walk down the street without letting everyone know you're an alien."

"Still, congratulations." Blake said, nodding at him.

"Thanks." he said, checking over his gun again. Ruby was just close enough, and with a well timed lull in the noise level, to catch a quiet mutter from him. "Planned on going furniture shopping in a couple days."

It occurred to Ruby there was an opinion missing from the conversation; swiftly coming up on Pyrrha, she tapped her on the side. "Hey, have you seen his apartment?"

The redhead responded with a noncommittal, "Yeah."

The last chevron choose the moment to lock in place, finishing the otherworldly ritual. Immediately the 'kawoosh' of glowing water spilled out, reaching out a short distance before settling back in place. The red toned girl saw her team flinch from the procedure, while the others didn't react whatsoever. Snapping her head to them, Yang had to groan.

"Okay, be level with me. How do you get used to that?" she stabbed a hand at the glowing object.

"You just do. Alright." Jaune stepped forward, so he was in front of the group. "I'll take point, follow me in on your own pace." he said, starting to walk towards the ring.

A flutter of rose petals put Ruby right next to him, which made him give her a brief look before shrugging. "Why not. Anyway, lets go."

He strolled easily up the ramp, with her a pace behind him. Sparing a glance over her shoulder, Ruby noticed both the unease in her own team and the concealed excitement in the others. In the glass a short distance away, she saw someone wave. She returned a wave of her own before turning forward, discovering Jaune has already vanished.

Ruby took a breath and forced herself to lunge forward, before her doubts consumed her. The glowing water engulfed her entirely, giving her a strange…

… _Feeling_ …

…that ended as soon as it began when she was spat out the other end. Sucking in air, she powered away from the ring for the incoming travelers. When something cracked under her feet she squeaked and grabbed Crescent Rose, alarm surging through her system.

"You okay?" Jaune demanded worriedly.

Forcing herself to stop and think, Ruby looked at what she stepped on. A blush formed when she saw what it was: the glow sticks Blake dropped earlier. She tossed them out hours ago, but after all that happened it felt more like weeks. Turning around, she saw Jaune looking concerned as he stood by with the P90 up.

"I'm fine." Ruby answered carefully. Shaking off the embarrassment of jumping at shadows, she flicked her eyes at the Gate.

Yang was the next one to appear with a wet plop, shuddering. "Okay, that was just weird."

She got out of the way in time for Nora and Weiss to appear in the same fashion, the latter unbalanced in spite of her better composure. Blake walked through the otherworldly water next, clearing out for Pyrrha and Ren to arrive. A couple seconds after they came through, the Stargate shorted out with a electric crackle. The tiny cave was plunged into darkness.

New lights flicked on, wide panes from scrolls and narrow cones from the P90s inbuilt flashlights. They all worked together to sweep around the small space, looking for anything dangerous or threatening. The search came up empty, but the constant glow from the caves exit caught the mixed group's attention, one by one.

"Ready?" Jaune asked loudly.

"I'm good. Lets get out of here." Yang declared, closing her scroll to stride towards the exit. Ruby easily overtook her, first hearing then faintly seeing the others on their heels.

It was a short distance from the Stargate to the cave opening, a distance which didn't end quickly enough. Coming out into the midday sun, Ruby let herself take in the achingly relieving sight of the red foliage of Forever Fall. She took a breath of air, tasting the scent of home. Never before was she so relieved to be in the wilderness.

Craning her neck, Ruby saw her four missing friends taking in the old sight too. Each of them paused, letting themselves slump in place. It wasn't hard for her to see the enormous smiles each had.

"Wow." Nora breathed softly, unusually quiet with a warm smile.

Blake came up behind them, noticing their almost entranced forms as Ruby did. "Never thought I'd be happy to see this place." Weiss was a few steps behind her, with Yang coming up last.

"We're home guys." Pyrrha glanced around, smiling widely. Unless Ruby was badly mistaken, there was a watery sheen in her eyes. "It…it almost doesn't seem real."

A cracked stick made all eight snap to the same direction, each one having a weapon in hand. Another smashed tree branch narrowed down its location, so sixteen eyes were trained on the brush the creature erupted from. Tearing through the foliage, the two and a half meters tall, faintly lupine, and skull topped creature paused to stare malevolently at the humans.

Ren sighed. "Yep. We are definitely back."

The Beowolf looked over the gathered returnees and roared.


	10. Rusty

_**B/N: "I'm back. I've been back... and uhh well. Now I have too much free time! I'm open for betas so hit me up. Note, I am harsh but I do help improve on writing. Eventually you wont need me anymore... Sniff"**_

00000

"Of course." Ruby heard Blake mutter ruefully, just after Ren's choice comment. The sentiment was expressed throughout the two teams at the sight of the medium sized Beowolf, all eight of them tracking the beast while it stalked them. She was no exception, wondering why they couldn't have a couple of minutes to savor being back home first.

Sensing further movement in the brush, the red huntress elected to set the bag containing Pyrrha and Nora's belongings on the ground beside her. After a second of thought, she used her foot to nudge it more out of the way, in case someone or something came close enough to step on on the duffel. Dropping the bag lightened her up considerably, allowing Crescent Rose to seemingly leap from her back into her hands. At last she racked the bolt, feeling relief at the sight of an awaiting bullet in the chamber. Her timing was superb; Yang had Ember Cecilia unlatched and ready to attack, Weiss had drawn Myrtenaster with grace customary to her station, and Blake rounded out her team with Gambol Shroud in both her hands. All four girls were armed within seconds of each other.

Tracking JNPR, the professional part of Ruby honed in the intervening years judged their reaction times in comparison. Ren unslung the heavy AT-4 from his back, crouching over to gently set it on the ground before going for Stormflower. Pyrrha and Nora had immediately clipped the submachine guns onto their respective slings before grabbing their weapons, the latter tossing the alien staff aside without a second glance. The redhead had both Miló and Akoúo off her back, holding the shield defensively while pointing the spear at the Beowolf. In contrast the orange haired girl had her typical lack of subtlety, in the way of Magnhild in hammer form clutched in both hands.

Only one of their number didn't go for a melee weapon.

Raising a hand, Jaune incurred a number of odd looks when he boldly stepped forward in the direction of the Grimm, training the P90 on the crouched monster.

"Hang on a minute guys." he called out.

"Uh, Jaune?" Ruby asked carefully, watching him confusedly when he looked over his shoulder for a moment. Weiss and Blake exchanged a look, as Pyrrha and Nora tracked him with obvious apprehension.

"We gotta test these things out sooner or later, now seems like as good a time as any." he answered easily before turning back. The Beowolf had crouched down, glaring at the gathering of humans. Ruby aimed at the Grimm in spite of Jaune's assurance, ready to intervene at once if he needed the help.

"Knock yourself out I guess." Yang invited, frowning despite her easygoing tone. Tellingly, she didn't relax her stance.

The group began to move around, subtly surrounding him. Ren and Nora had spaced themselves out from the rest, leaving an opening for Blake and Weiss to cautiously approach, the latter ending up right by Pyrrha. Yang stomped up to them, bending her knees in preparation of leaping into the fray. Ruby had to relocate herself onto the top of a boulder so she could still see, and subsequently aim. In the process, she discovered more shifting shapes in the bushes. A lot more.

Taking up a stance in the ad hoc formation, Jaune muttered "Moment of truth." to himself as he pointed the Earth gun at the Grimm.

Releasing a breath, he fired. The pistol sized bullets spat from the P90 in controlled bursts, the gun kicking lightly in his grip. It hit the Beowolf in the face, making the beast wince and snarl. More gunfire drove it to hold up a forearm in order to protect its head. He didn't let up, refraining from spraying wildly in favor of making sure his shots found its mark. Ruby saw a few puffs of blow up dirt around the Grimm, though it wasn't something she could fault him for. Finally the P90 clicked empty, and Jaune lowered it to get a detailed look at the results.

The Beowolf shook its head, returning its malevolent gaze towards them with its red eyes blazing far more than what was typical for the creatures. It stood up on its hind legs to roar at the group, louder than before.

"Uh, Jaune? I don't think that worked." Nora stated the obvious, glancing to him guardedly. She wasn't the only one, not by any small margin. On his part the blond took a shallow breath, giving a little shake of his head.

"Yep, I knew better, but _nooo_ , had to be optimistic." he muttered disdainfully. When the Beowolf began to stalk forward again, he unslung the clothes duffel from his back to throw out of the way, methodically clipping the gun to his chest next.

The Grimm charged just as his hands felt for the sword grip, eating up the ground in front of them. A single well aimed shot impacted the beast on the top portion of its bony mask, blowing it away. Mid charge the Beowolf stumbled and collapsed into a tangled heap a half dozen meters from him. Jaune drew his blade and shield while it turned to ash, sparing an annoyed look towards Ruby, which made her shrug sheepishly.

"I could've got it." he protested, waving his shield arm about.

"I'm sorry." Ruby said quickly, wincing at herself.

Glancing towards the brush, Blake hardened her gaze. "Don't worry, there's more where it came from."

No sooner than they snapped their heads where she was looking did the red colored underbrush explode, revealing a dozen Beowolves charging out from the forest. Jaws snapping and snarling with bestial fury, the Grimm pack bore down on the group. Ruby didn't hesitate; she planted Crescent Rose on the boulder underneath her feet and fired, propelling her into the fray.

A swipe cleaved a Grimm in half while she was in mid air, setting her up to attack the one behind it. A strike to take off an arm one second, an undercut to leave a nasty gash across a snarling Beowolf the next, all of her attacks carefully placed in the melee. She wasn't swinging wildly, every blow was controlled more than her usual style. If she were on her own it wouldn't be much of a problem, but with her friends present she had to make sure to not hit anyone by mistake.

Speaking of them, she focused on her uniformed companions for the moment. Her team was fine; Yang whooped as she delivered a series of punches that ended with a Beowolf disintegrating before it hit the ground, Weiss launched a salvo of fire Dust at a pair of Grimm that tried to flank her, and Blake left a flickering shadow clone as she leaped into the air to stab one in the back. They she didn't have to worry about.

Nora was cackling madly, swinging her hammer back and forth to send a Beowolf flying with every blow, until she brought it down on ones head. Ren and Pyrrha both charged one, only for an Ursa to break from the brush. Ruby blinked in to cut the lupine monster in half to free them up, keeping an eye on their movements. The sable haired young man darted around a powerful blow to slash at the limb, making it reflexively recoil. Doing so left the redhead an opening to attack, which she exploited by blocking its other arm to stab it under the jaw, finishing the Ursa off.

Jaune swatted aside a blow from a Beowolf using his shield, slashing Crocea Mors up with a yell of effort. Ruby was fully prepared to abandon her position to help him, but the sight of the Grimm disintegrating put an end to the plan. Dodging a blow, she watched him smirk at the vanished creature in apparent victory. When an Ursa charged into him to send the blond tumbling backwards, she couldn't help wincing. To his credit Jaune recovered quickly, staggering on his feet to level a glare at the snarling bear. Out of concern for him she blinked over, trusting the closest fighter take care of her share of Grimm. Landing on its rolling back let her swipe her scythe around, so the curved blade was pointing at its throat. The Ursa had just realized she was there when Ruby fired, beheading the creature and sending her up into the air.

With practiced ease she landed with a quiet thump a little more than a meter from him, breathing heavily with Crescent Rose held by her side.

"You okay?" she asked, internally impressed that his breathing wasn't close to as rough as hers.

"Not a word." he warned, narrowing his eyes before looking over the swirling brawl. More Beowolves were arriving seemingly out of the woodwork, backed up by smaller numbers of Ursai. Thus far they were handling them well, but that could change the moment a bigger beast showed up.

 _Come to think of it_ , Ruby thought, _It seems like there's always a lot of Grimm after the Gate gets turned on._

"I wasn't going to say anything, you're just out of practice is all." she shrugged off, dismissing her thoughts. He took a short breath.

"Three years, cut me some slack." he muttered, rolling his head on his shoulders.

Ruby was going to reassure him more, but a body landing by them gave her pause. The green uniformed girl bounced once before skidding, grunting in effort. If the red hair didn't give her away, the bronze toned shield did. Pyrrha groaned as she pushed herself up, using the base of her spear to help get back on her feet. She shook her head at something before finally noticing the two beside her.

"On second thought, cut us all some slack." Jaune amended.

Pyrrha sighed as she readied herself again. Ruby cleared her throat, not so subtly catching her attention. When she glanced her way, both she and Jaune pointed at her torso. Looking down made her gasp, her face scrunching up indignantly. "My gun!"

The M16 was shattered, both major chunks dangling limply from her sling. To Ruby, it looked like whatever hit, most likely the blow that sent her flying, had smacked the receiver, breaking so the stock and the barrel were the majority of what was left. There were probably more bits, scattered around the area to never be retrieved. The red toned girl winced sympathetically; no matter what it was or why it happened, losing a weapon was never a good thing.

"You mind covering me for a moment?" Pyrrha asked dejectedly, frowning at the ruined weapon. Neither Ruby nor Jaune spoke, but their shifting stances were all the answer she needed.

A large Beowolf bore down on them, running on all four limbs. The blond pushed his way past her, timing his movement so he could counter the Grimm when it lunged. Jaune swept his shield out, backhanding a fast swipe as he slashed at its other arm. Its roar was abruptly cut off when he brought Crocea Mors up, cleaving a massive gash over the chest. Another Beowolf charged in just as its packmate died, which he countered with his shield once more. Unlike the last one, the only sounds he made were grunts of effort.

Ruby resisted the impulse to charge, staying close to Pyrrha while she fumbled with her harness. A Beowolf coming from a different direction met its end via a wide swipe from Crescent Rose, setting her up to fire off a shot at another Beowolf that was flaking Jaune. Racking the bolt, she checked on the redhead to discover she was free of the busted firearm, tossing both chunks to the ground. Shield and spear in her grip, she nodded to the girl and ran towards her teammate.

Taking the opportunity, Ruby leaped to attack an Ursa, picking up at the distinctive roar of an angry Berigel. Going off to kill it was her first thought, but one look at her friends convinced her to stay put for the moment. She had to trust the others, still attacking the diminishing yet ferocious pack, to handle it for her.

She had to bite her tongue when she saw Jaune putting in too much strength into his attacks, leaving him exposed repeatedly. His shield kept catching blows, but that was far from a guarantee of protection, especially when another Ursa slammed its entire body on him. While his boot heels dug into the ground, he thrusted his sword up to skewer the chest of the snarling Grimm. No sooner than it perished did another barrel into him, and he bit back a curse. A pointer almost left her lips, but she forced herself to stay silent.

Back in the old days, Pyrrha was with little doubt the best fighter of the year, surpassing all of her contemporaries. But that was then. Ruby saw the skill she still held, blocking a blow and stabbing a Beowolf in a single smooth motion in time to whirl around for the next target. Unlike before, Ruby saw the openings she left hanging. Though she tried to deny it, she saw the weaknesses of her attacks and how she could exploit them. The redhead was relying too much on her weapons, trusting in talent she evidently had few chances to improve on since she left.

Blowing away a Boarbatusk, Ruby checked around her. For the moment the Grimm had dried up, leaving the three alone for a short span. Both of her uniformed friends were taking shallow breaths, nowhere near as bad as her own rasps. If there was one upside to the military training they went through, it was improving their physical prowess. The red Huntress was no slouch, but it wasn't hard to see how much more strength both of them now had. All the same, she felt some more questions were due. "Did you guys get to practice much?"

"We try to get together three or four times a week, but that wasn't enough as it seems." Pyrrha answered her, readying herself at another group of Beowolves breaking from the brush. Nora caught them first, a bellow of laughter telling Ruby how she was feeling. "I admit we've been slipping recently."

"Why?" Ruby asked, frowning at her.

Jaune's breathing subsided, almost back to what he was at the start.

"Works been getting hectic lately, thanks to this jerk called Anubis." he told her, bringing both halves of Crocea Mors up. If the odd name hadn't tipped her off, the scorn he used would have told her what he meant.

"A Gawold." she stated carefully, cringing at herself. The word they used was so difficult to pronounce correctly, and she didn't have time to get it right.

Both of them nodded, a sideways look at their expressions showing a hardness she recognized. Jaune's face especially was familiar; she imagined her own had a lot in common. "Yeah, big time System Lord. Even by their standards though, he's-"

As much as she was interested in his explanation, the thumps that caused the ground to shake took priority. He shut up, turning with the girls towards the forest. The red huntress didn't wait on them this time. The second the three meter tall simian Grimm burst through the cover of the forest, Ruby was upon it.

The malevolent eyes of the Berigel had just processed the sight of the scythe wielding Huntress appearing before it in a flutter of rose petals when she struck, catching the sharp edge of her weapon on its massive biceps. It roared and tried to swat her, but her speed was too great. Swinging around while digging an enormous cut into its arm, she slammed her feet onto the back of its neck, firing off a shot to free her weapon and to remove its arm. Its roar was ear splitting, tinged by something resembling pain. Ruby had neither malice nor mercy; a powerful slice took the monster's head off, and she leaped off to clear its death throes. But while she was occupied, another pair of Ursai had closed in on her friends.

Gritting her teeth, Ruby blinked over to help. No small amount of frustration was building within her at the seemingly never ending tide of Grimm, continually pouring into the area to attack them. What she needed was a couple of days to think everything all over, how it was going to change her life.

Instead she swept herself around in a vertical arc, carving one of the attacking Ursai in half. A tiny part of her approved of Pyrrha yanking herself around to save Jaune instead of hesitating or thanking her, the same part which helped the younger students out whenever she could. Shaking off the trail of thought, Ruby landed and charged to the blond. Her attack run was hastily aborted when the Grimm slumped down to disintegrate, adjusting her footing back to something resembling normal while she came up to them.

Jaune took a breath, rolling his shoulders. "Looks like the Grimm missed us too."

"Points for enthusiasm anyway." Pyrrha agreed, sweeping her head back to the main brawl. The red toned girl was going to add a comment of her own, something along the lines of the Grimm giving them a cake instead, but movement caught her attention. Specifically, a Boarbatusk charging straight at the trio.

Ordinarily that would be cause for concern, but Ruby noted a mane of blonde hair streaming off from the laughing girl riding the Grimm, and relaxed a minute degree. When it was a dozen meters away Yang had enough of the free ride, and crushed its head between her fists. She leaped off the dissolving Boarbatusk to land with a concussive thump in front of the three, standing up and beaming.

"Well, this is a fun welcome home party." Yang chuckled, smirking. "Was afraid it'd be a boar."

Jaune's shield hand slapped his face. Pyrrha's spear came up to lightly tap her forehead. Ruby groaned and let her head fall back, squeezing her eyes shut. The blonde's response was an evil giggle.

"How many more are there?" Ruby groaned, opening up at the sky and letting the tension leave her body.

"I got lots, just you wait" Yang promised playfully, planting her fists on her hips and snickering more.

"Doesn't look like there's many Grimm left." the redhead reported in her stead, warily tracking the others.

Turning her head to the source of action, Ruby saw Ren whirling around in a flurry of blades, killing one Beowolf after another. Blake was being her usual self, leaping from one target to another and leaving behind a short lived cloud of ash. Weiss wasn't doing so well, her attacks were starting to slow from all her exertions. Fortunately Nora was right beside her, still laughing her head off at every foe she pulped. The red huntress wondered how long it had been since she cut loose like this. Watching the four fight, Ruby mentally compared Ren and Nora to before, searching for any refinements in their techniques. Something seemed off with them, but she couldn't put her finger on what it could be.

Her analyzing was put on hold when Jaune said "Ammo count?"

"Still got thirty shells, relax." Yang flippantly waved off. The red toned girl mentally shrugged and checked Crescent Rose, finding her magazine to be half empty. Deciding it was enough, she looked to the pair, who were starting to move back to the main fight. Neither tried to reload; the P90 was effectively useless, and the M16 was busted beyond repair. That left-

"Hang on." Ruby said aloud, making Pyrrha and Jaune stop to turn around. Yang too looked at her questionably, raising a brow at her blinking sister. "Pyrrha, you haven't shot at all today."

The redhead stiffened, before dropping her head and sighing. "I'm out of ammo for Miló."

"No big deal." Yang shrugged off with a little wave of her arm. "So you forgot to pick up more, its not a problem." her supportive smile vanished when she shook her head.

"No, I've been out for two and a half years. No Dust out there." Pyrrha explained, gesturing with her head in a random direction. Out of curiosity Ruby glanced around, locating the cave containing the discovery of the…

 _Of all history_ , she thought with a cold shiver.

"Uh…" Yang trailing off snapped her back to the present, if a short chatter of gunfire from Gambol Shroud didn't do it first, "Did you use them on something good anyway?"

Pyrrha looked away, a red flush to her cheeks. Jaune cleared his throat to continue in her place. "Major Carter wanted to know more about Dust, how it worked and whatnot. So, we donated all our remaining ammo. It was possible she could've found a way to synthesize it."

"Synthesize? Like, man made?" Ruby couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice. Trailing the idea was the oddball thought that Weiss's father would have a heart attack at the thought of artificial Dust threatening his empire.

"I'm gonna guess she didn't figure it out." Yang ventured, huffing when Jaune looked away instead of giving her an answer. The blonde smiled. "Look who got the last laugh though." she pointed to his sword, which to Ruby's knowledge had never jammed, misfired, or needed reloading.

The red toned girl cleared her throat to gain everyone's attention.

"Let's finish this pack off." she said authoritatively, vanishing into a flutter of rose pedals once the words left her lips.

Ruby took a relieved breath once she reappeared in a flash, cutting a third of an Ursa away in the process. Despite their dawdling, her friends were still handling the Grimm pack, which was finally starting to taper off. Weiss was breathing the heaviest out of the makeshift team, her lack of sleep catching up to her at the worst time. She would have placed far more concern on her if Nora wasn't right by her side, catching any Grimm she missed. Her maniacal cheer was almost infectious, the zeal she displayed while swinging Magnhild about less so.

Yang, Pyrrha, and Jaune caught up with her as the last Beowolf met its end by a scissor slice of Blake. Once it dissipated she paused to catch her breath. Ruby too stopped to take a breather, automatically reloading Crescent Rose as she swept her silver gaze over the two teams. Apart from being largely out of breath, none of the eight looked any worse off than when they began.

"So, you guys enjoyed your chat?" Blake icily questioned, settling her amber eyes on the mismatched team. Ruby's sister and friends winced, though Ren picked himself back up to sweep his own gaze around. His chest was heaving more than the others, but far less than the red huntress expected. From what she remembered, he would have been swaying on his feet by now after that many Grimm.

Nora smirked as she settled Magnhild's head on the ground. "Dunno about the rest of you, but I was having a great time."

"Well its over now." Weiss stated, her breathing slowing as she idly rubbed her aching bicep. "We should get going soon, before more show up."

Ruby nodded. "Let's grab the stuff first, then we'll-"

A powerful rumble rolled through the ground, and she had to throw her arms out to balance herself. Eyes widening, Ruby snapped her head to find everyone else in the same shape. The shaking ground wasn't stopping.

"I don't remember there being quakes here." Pyrrha said loudly, her own eyes wide open.

"There's not." Blake corrected darkly, a moment before her ears picked up. Trusting in her senses, Ruby turned her head to the same direction as her, to discover the unusual sight of trees collapsing on their own accord some distance away. Whatever was doing it was getting closer.

"Tell me that's not what I think it is." Yang bemoaned, cringing at the evidently massive creature coming for them. The red toned girl thought she saw Jaune gulping out of the corner of her vision, but she didn't have time to check.

The edge of the forest crumpled before the monster, several old trees dating from before the Great War scattered around like children's toys. It's enormous size was completely hidden until it was close to the clearing, where the top of its black tinted form finally showed itself. When it burst from the trees, three arms the size of houses swung about to remove any obstacles between them. Four stories tall, colored black, and with two legs and three arms, the mass of rocks and trees stomped out of its home ground, leveling a single protrusion acting as the Grimm's head at them. While the rest of the body was natural, there was a comically tiny white mass on the center of the head.

"That's what I think it is." Yang dropped her head, groaning. Ren pointed a single finger at the Grimm.

"My bestiary is rusty, but I'm mostly certain that's a Geist." he said, glancing to the girls. Several resigned nods met him.

A horridly loud screech echoed out from the opposite direction as them; Ruby really didn't want to take her eyes off the Geist, but the rest of her friends looking anyway made her sigh and check anyway. A small part of her felt relieved at the much more common sight of a Nevermore far in the sky, one with easily a forty meter wingspan. She didn't have to guess if it spotted them, since it was swooping in from wherever it was patrolling earlier.

"Okay, okay, _okay_." Jaune took a deep breath, shrugging his shoulders. The few odd looks he received were ignored. "I just wanna say for the record, this." he paused to think over his wording. "This is dumb. Seriously, ten minutes of not being attacked is too much to ask for."

"Uh, I do wanna point out this isn't normal for these parts. From what I know anyway." Weiss said loudly, her hair swinging while she tried keeping tabs on both massive Grimm.

"Would you take it the wrong way if I said the Gate is drawing them in?" Blake opined, deciding to focus her efforts on the Geist.

"I don't think that's really important right now, but yeah, do agree on that." Ren added, focusing on the Nevermore instead.

"Okay, game plan." Jaune spoke, glancing to Ruby. "We'll take the Nevermore, you guys get the Geist. That work?"

"Well…" Ruby quickly thought it over, but she could see his logic. JNPR _did_ know how to deal with the bird, but not the Geist. RWBY on the other hand knew what they had to do with this type, though she had never personally faced one down before. Letting out a breath, she nodded.

"Dibs on the missile!" Nora shouted excitedly, breaking out in a sprint. The movement triggered the Geist, which charged at them. The ground shook with every footfall. Its charging spurned the Nevermore to attack, and it brought its wings closer to dive bomb them.

The last thing Ruby saw of that moment was Ren grabbing her arm to yank her back on track, eliciting a tiny chuckle from the red toned girl. But as she blinked closer to the enormous Grimm, she was certain she saw Yang taking off in the same direction Nora was. Her sister wasn't going to grab the AT-4, was she? She couldn't tell at the moment, since Ruby reappeared right in front of the Geist and fired off a shot at its head. It bounced off, chipping away a chunk of the boulder and grabbing its attention.

This was going to be the trickiest part of fighting a Geist; wearing it down until it exposed itself. In theory, the trick to killing these Grimm was a simple blend of attack and mobility, according to Professor Port anyway. In practice, dodging a mass of trees and rocks larger than her old home was difficult. When a black blur rushed out to shave away some of its mass, Ruby silently thanked Blake for joining in, giving it an extra target to divide its attention. Weiss was hanging back for the moment; even if she had a full wind, she wasn't exactly geared to take down a monster like this. That left Yang.

Blinking out of the way, the red toned girl felt the mass of rocks shake the ground beneath her feet. She couldn't stay still, not with two other arms and a pair of massive feet to contend with too. Grimacing, she raced in a circle firing off round after round at a single leg. The Geist realized what she was doing, and tried to stomp closer. It left an opening for Blake to rush in, firing Gambol Shroud at the same spot Ruby was aiming at. One of its arms crashed down, crushing her shimmering form underneath. She could almost see the Grimm's surprise when Blake whirled up on top of the arm to dash, leaving behind a clone every few meters as she peppered its face with gunfire.

Ruby was in no position to do anything more than snatch a quick peek in JNPR's direction, but peek she did. The Nevermore was still airborne, screeching loudly at the ground based humans attacking it. But when she heard P90 gunfire from them, she was forced to abandon her target to blink away. Reappearing by a crouched Weiss, she got out "Tag in." before vanishing once more, wincing at the shocked expression on her face. Mentally she promised she would only be a few seconds.

Darting over as fast as she could move, Ruby homed in on the closest source of fire, not aware of who she was on until she was right next to them. Landing in a thump caused Ren to flip the gun her way, barely reigning in his reflexes in time to avoid shooting her.

"What're you doing?" he demanded tightly.

"Sorry." she quickly apologized, sparing a look skyward. Without thinking she grabbed the sable haired young man and blinked; her back slammed into a tree, along with his. The discomfort was minor compared to the massive Nevermore tearing a pile of dirt out of the spot they were a second ago. "So, you okay?" her gaze landed on the P90 instead of his face.

Ren groaned, idly reloading the tiny gun. "I know, I was standing right there. I'm just distracting it."

"Oh." she said, blinking. A redness worked its way into her cheeks, causing him to sigh.

"Its okay. How's it going over there?" he asked, strained.

A tremendous crash echoed, making both spare a look. The source of the boom was a crumbling mass of rocks, coming from the now flailing Geist sans one arm. As she watched, a blast of ice froze a fist shaped rock and made it swerve into the ground, well short of its target.

"Good. I think. You guys?" she asked back.

"Trying to get Nora on it. Not having a lot of luck so far." he answered, in time for the tree branches above them to crackle ominously. Both relaxed when a blond young man landed on his feet with a pained grunt in front of them, his sword and shield hitting the ground to steady himself.

"I'll leave you to it then. Good luck." Ruby told him quickly, vanishing in a flutter.

Staying to assist was what she wanted to do, but the sight of streaming blonde hair shook up her priorities. Yang was suspiciously absent for most of the fight, and Ruby wanted to know why. She regrouped with her by a tree, right in front of the small clearing where Weiss and Blake were still battling the Geist. A couple seconds after they regrouped, the white haired girl was backhanded by the force of the Grimm's stomp, flying away to land a couple of meters from them. Before she tore into her sister, Ruby grabbed Weiss's groaning body to drag her under the shade.

"Perfect timing." Yang beamed, crouching to one knee. When Ruby glanced at her, the retort died on her lips.

"Why do you have that?" she demanded incredulously, staring at the AT-4 Yang unslung from her back. She showed some effort handling the tube weapon, maneuvering it so it was resting on her shoulder with the body comfortably cocooned by her hand. Her large smirk told her exactly what she was thinking. Weiss groaned and sat up, shaking her head before her eyes fell on the blonde.

"You left us on our own, for that." she accused dryly, grimacing through whatever pain she was in.

"Would've been here sooner, but some Beowolves got in the way. Anyway, have no fear, Yang is here!" she proclaimed, aiming the business end at the massive Geist.

Weiss stared at her stilled form, and Ruby cleared her throat. "Well?"

"I…" Yang was still smiling, faker than the reunion hours earlier. "Don't… know… how to use this." she beamed through a rictus of a smile.

Weiss sucked in a breath, then slowly exhaled. From the ongoing battle Blake bellowed " _On my own here!_ " while narrowly dodging an impact.

"Ten seconds." Ruby said, gesturing behind her. She vanished into rose pedals, leaving a faint outline of where she was.

Shrugging, Yang held out a hand to Weiss to help her up. The white toned girl grabbed her right; she was one of precisely three people the blonde didn't mind touching the misshapen hand, provided she didn't make an issue out of it. Once she had successfully pulled her back onto her unsteady feet, a fresh pedal shower appeared, and Ruby fell into a crouch. Jaune wasn't so lucky, falling on his hands and knees while he fought the vertigo.

"How…" he got out, dizzily trying to stand up.

"Yeah, sorry." Ruby said, quickly grabbing his arm to help him up. She saw his remaining orange magazines, a lot fewer than a few minutes ago.

Another shout of " _Help me!_ " made Weiss snort and turn away, rejoining the fray to do what she could to help. Neither the sisters nor their friend tried to stop her.

"So, you mind helping an old friend out?" Yang asked hopefully, giving him her best smile. He sighed, then did a double take at her new prize. It faded into puzzlement when he groaned and slapped his face, taking deep breaths.

"There's instructions on the side." his voice was muffled from the hand on his face. Frowning, Yang hefted the weapon off her shoulder to look, blinking in surprise.

"Oh, whaddya know." she said softly, her lilac eyes scanning the writing on the side.

Jaune sighed again, finally lowering his hand. Despite his apparent frustration, Ruby saw him twitch when he looked at the ongoing fight, tightening his grip on the shield and sword. "You guys good over here?"

"Yeah, what about you?" the red toned girl asked him quickly, sparing a look back.

"Fine." he looked away, indecision flashing over him. "You mind giving me a ride back?"

"Oh, sure." Ruby grabbed him once more and blinked, a fast moving stream of pedals announcing where she and Jaune was as they zoomed between the two ongoing battles.

Yang was still reading when Ruby returned thirty seconds, huffing in breath with her hands on her thighs. Sparing a look at her, the blonde shook her head. "This things builder must think the user is an idiot."

The red huntress nodded shakily, turning her head back to the other battle when she heard the P90s chattering. The faint shout of " _Get back here!_ " reached her ears, the sight of a faraway Nora in the middle of the small field shaking her fist at the Nevermore making her sputter out a coughing laugh.

"So, you ready?" Yang asked, handling the AT-4 back onto her shoulder.

When Ruby shook her head, she frowned. Rather than speaking, she held up one hand to show her a whitish brick held in her grip.

"Let, me, first." she panted. Taking a deep breath, the girl drew on her reserves of strength. Ruby forced her aching muscles and burning lungs to keep quiet, telling herself that Weiss and Blake were worse off. Letting it out, she blinked away.

Her target was the limb she attacked earlier, where she tried to slow the Geist down. Zooming right by a dodging Weiss, she latched ahold of the chipped leg as tight as she could. The Grimm was definitely angry, bringing the leg up to slam into the ground. Feeling her bones rattle, she grimaced but kept to her task. Said task was sticking the brick Jaune quickly gave her into a crevice and hitting the tiny button on the small side pad. That done, she leaped off to blink away.

Just after touching the ground, the brick he called 'see-four' exploded. The shockwave was powerful, knocking her off her feet even from as far away as she was. Blake and Weiss, being far closer, were sent flying away. The Geist staggered from the explosion utterly obliterating its leg, comically twirling as it tried to regain its balance. Ultimately it failed, and the entire possessed construct tilted to fall. The resounding boom as its entire body hit the ground was almost as great as the bomb.

Seeing her cue, Yang sprinted towards the flailing Geist. Lying on the ground, Ruby felt like watching for the moment. Her sister hadn't helped during the fight, so letting her finish it off seemed fair. Stopping a short distance away, Yang aimed the missile at her cooperative foe, which lifted both its head and a mostly undamaged arm to squash her. Even facing away, Ruby could see her smirk on her face when she pressed a button.

The back of the AT-4 exploded in a large plume, coinciding with the speedy missile erupting from the front. Almost too fast to track, the projectile streaked out to impact the Geist, blooming into a massive explosion which engulfed the entire head. Yang was buffeted backwards by the boom, but somehow managing to stay on her feet. The Grimm's raised arm suddenly crumbled, the black corruption coating the rocks fading away.

Ruby gingerly felt for Crescent Rose, aiming at the cloud of dusty debris that was the central node of the Geist a moment ago. As it turned out, she didn't have to finish it off; Yang slung the weapon around to her back to prepare instead of admiring her destructive handiwork. In the nick of time she leaped, catching a fleeting dark shape and pinning it to the ground. Before the true form of the Geist could escape, she drew back to punch the Grimm, Ember Cecilia booming.

Groaning, the red toned girl pushed herself up so she was sitting. Blake was trying to get back onto her feet, but Weiss was having trouble doing anything but flop. She sighed, right before another concussive boom shook the air. Twisting around, her eyes widened at the Nevermore plummeting to the ground, trailing smoke while screeching. It slammed headfirst into the dirt, digging a massive new trench into the soil as it skidded to a stop in her direction. It's momentum came to an abrupt halt when Nora jumped up from its back, bringing her hammer down on top of its head. The remainder of the Nevermore briefly rose up so its tail was skyward.

Finally it crashed down, rumbling the ground with the settling impact. As it dissolved into ash, Nora strolled through to her direction, coughing from its dusty remains. Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren were striding to regroup as well, unlike her taking a route away from the ash. On the other side Yang picked up Weiss to flop her over her shoulder, with her head right by the missile. Blake was up too, though clearly looking worse for wear while she slowly walked back.

Getting back onto her feet proved much harder than Ruby anticipated, her aching muscles protesting against any more exertions. The red toned girl decided she earned a plateful of cookies for all this, probably muffins too. Muffins sounded very appealing all of a sudden.

Of course, they had to get back to Beacon first. With all that entailed.

00000

 **A/N: New chapter will be the next month at this rate.**

 **Edited**


	11. Back in the Swing

**A/N: the excuse for the delay this time (for once) isn't "I was busy." In fact the opposite: I was trying my best to** _ **not**_ **be busy. Went on vacation, to Canada specifically. So hurray for dodging responsibilities, like updating this.**

 _ **B/N: I have no idea when I'll ever update a fic or add a new one. Damn you life.**_

00000

A flash of light, and suddenly four figures were present.

Sitting in his command chair like a Goa'uld passing judgment from its throne, Colonel Lionel Pendergast initially regarded the new arrivals with professional indifference. But upon confirming who the four were, he rose from the chair to approach them. All around the large yet cramped room, a dozen airmen went about their tasks, most only sparing a short look at the other end of the bridge.

Coming to a stop a meter away, the greying master of the newly refitted USAF Prometheus clasped his hands behind his back and nodded in greeting. "Welcome aboard SG-1."

"Good to be here. Like the new chair?" O'Neill asked, digging his hands into his pockets as he glanced around. The view outside the bridge window caught the Colonel's attention, causing the man to ignore the rest of the room.

"Very much Colonel. Ronson's suggestion of new chairs throughout the ship was implemented nicely." Pendergast replied evenly.

"I'm impressed the new sensors are tuned so well. The Asgard didn't spare any expense this time. New sensors, new hyperdrive, new beaming system, its amazing." Carter complimented, letting her eyes wander to the various displays. Unlike her commanding officer, she kept herself at attention.

"Indeed." Teal'c agreed, maintaining a close impression of Pendergast's own pose.

"Yeah, lets hope this trip will be smooth, for once." Daniel Jackson said, muttering the last two words to himself as he made zero attempt to keep the others discipline.

O'Neill was snapped out of his infrequent hobby to playfully rib the man, letting a smile cross him at the younger man's irritation. "You can give the whole persecution thing a rest. Already said I'm sorry for being a jerk earlier."

"Anyway." Pendergast said, regaining the men's attentions, "SG-3 and SG-9 boarded an hour ago. Your luggage and the extra supplies have already been beamed up, and your quarters are prepared. We're free to depart anytime." he explained crisply.

"Perfect. If you don't mind sir, I'd like to look over some of the systems on board." Carter stated, relaxing her posture just enough to start moving. When Pendergast waved a hand towards an unused terminal, she gave a quick salute before strolling over.

"I'm gonna go brush up on my notes. Diplomatic mission and all." Daniel walked out, knowing when he wasn't needed.

Extracting his hands from his pockets, O'Neill quizzically asked, "Is the mess still in the same place? I could use something to eat."

"Same location Colonel." Pendergast confirmed.

"Great. Alright, you do your thing.' O'Neill said, moving before he finished talking. Teal'c said nothing, but unlike the other three he nodded respectfully at the Colonel before walking off after the man.

Once the lackluster excuse of a meeting was over with, Pendergast returned to his chair. As he sat back down, he gave his helmsman a single order.

"Engage hyperdrive."

O'Neill felt his stomach lurch when the Prometheus tore into another dimension, but he paid no attention to the sensation. Memory gave him a path, protocol provided the silent reply to any personnel he crossed paths with, and his mind offered a silent war of expectations versus reality. He knew the food was going to be bad, a minor sacrifice to essentially living the life of his childhood heroes.

He waited until his feet carried him to a reasonably empty area to speak up. "What's on your mind?"

"I am hungry as well." Teal'c said in his distinctive monotone, no doubt staring at O'Neill's back with the intensity of a marble statue.

"Yeah, sure you are." O'Neill spun on his heels to lean against a wall.

"I admit to some curiosity however." Teal'c replied evenly.

O'Neill let his head tilt back, giving the bulkhead an empty look. "This is the part where you ask me why we're heading off into the great unknown when we could've just gated to the planet, right?"

"Correct. I found it strange General Hammond agreed to Jaune Arc's request so quickly. Are you not concerned as well?" the slightest hint of emotion filtered into his tone, though the rest of his body might as well have been made of stone.

A quiet groan left O'Neill while he looked around, checking for crew members in the vicinity. Satisfied at being alone for the moment, he leaned against a wall. "Can you keep a secret T?"

The flat look Teal'c answered with made O'Neill close his eyes and thump his head against the wall.

"Ask a stupid question…" he muttered before shaking his head. "Alright. I think Hammond is discharging the kids."

"For what reason?" the larger man questioned, lifting up an eyebrow. To O'Neill, it had the same weight as a dropped jaw.

"My guess is a way to stick it to Kinsey." he pursed his lips at even recalling the politician, "That slimy rat pulled some strings to get the kids enlisted in the first place. The deal Hammond made was they work for us until we found their homeworld. Now that its found, he doesn't have any reason to keep them in the fire."

"As I recall, it was a gambit to discredit the SGC." Teal'c spoke, the gears in his head turning.

"Yeah, to take over again. Just like trying to get the Army involved. Like those Ranger idiots can do a better job than us." he shook his head again. "So, I'm figuring we're gonna have to break the news to them sooner or later. Gonna have to give it the bandaid treatment. Lucky us." O'Neill groaned, rolling his eyes.

Teal'c creased his brow. "Are you not worried about the Creatures of Grimm?"

"No, why would I?" O'Neill turned his head lackadaisically. "Its a bunch of werewolf and bear things, no big deal. Wonder what they got for fishing..." his eyes glazed over, possibilities turning over in his head.

"You have not paid attention to the tales they have told." Teal'c noted.

"Did I ever tell you I once caught a forty inch Pike?" O'Neill asked him. The Jaffa creased his brow a few degrees. "Coulda swore I did. Anyway, that's because the Pike wasn't forty inches, it was fourteen. Tell me Bra'tac hasn't made up stuff in his stories." he challenged with a light tap on Teal'c's chest. The slab of muscles under the shirt didn't yield to the contact.

"He certainly has." he conceded.

"Everyone makes their own stories more impressive than what they really were. Besides, since the kids had…" O'Neill lifted a fist with curled fingers. "A pair of handguns, a spear, a hammer, and a sword." he listed each weapon with a raised finger.

"And two shields." Teal'c corrected.

"Yeah those too." O'Neill crossed his arms. "If those do the trick just fine, then these Grimmey things aren't so bad. Hammond used it as an excuse to send them along on their own, not because he thought we couldn't handle some wildlife. Trust me, it'll be easy."

Teal'c thought over his wording for a moment. "What if you're wrong?"

"Doubt it. But hey, wouldn't be the first time." O'Neill shrugged off. Hearing a crew member's footsteps caused him to reluctantly stop leaning on the wall, stretching for a moment. "As long as its not another Replicator swarm or Perdition Rift kind of thing, I'm fine with it. Who knows, maybe they'll have the Lost City somewhere." he said as he started walking down the hallway again.

"O'Neill." Teal'c said, stopping him in his tracks. When he turned around, the Jaffa pointed to an adjacent hallway. "The cafeteria is this way."

00000

 _Fwip-wash._

The orange bolt struck the target dead center, impacting the snarling face. Immediately the skin boiled, the fur igniting into short lived flame. The searing ball of condensed plasma burned through the unnatural flesh, swiftly burrowing into the side of its head. The extreme heat flash vaporized all that it touched, a brief flash of the universes terrible wrath vented upon the target. The boney plate was spared outrage incineration, but it too was scorched. A raging inferno could not have caused this much damage, not this quickly.

Reeling from the unexpectedly painful blow, the Beowolf staggered as one of its paws was brought up to protect the injury. Its fearsome gaze was turned away from the humans it menaced a moment ago, something bearing a stark resemblance to pain in its roar. It failed to react when the swift enemy darted up to its shaken form, gauntlet covered fists impacting the hide with a resonating boom. Three blows were all that was needed to finish off the wounded Beowolf; it died without getting more than a short glimpse of its prey.

Yang stood up straight, for the moment refraining from retracting Ember Cecilia. She looked over the dissipating ash with some amazement, but no small amount of concern as well. Nevertheless she glanced over to her awaiting friends, the leader of the missing team clutching the alien weapon carefully. "Nice shot."

With a quiet breath Jaune brought the head of the Staff up so it was pointed at the sky, looking over the results of the test with mixed emotions.

"How's that for irony." he murmured. He clicked something on the haft, making the segmented head clamp up.

"Hmm?" went Ruby from beside him, taking her eyes off the short display. The staff was held away from him, as if the blond didn't want it closer to him than necessary.

On the other side of Jaune, Pyrrha spoke up. "Normally these things aren't very effective."

She held Akoúo and Miló close during the so called test, easing out of a combat stance once it was over. Over her back was the girls' clothes duffel; without an Earther gun of any kind, there wasn't much reason to not take the bag.

"Looks like it worked fine to me." Yang commented, stomping back to the gathering.

"Perfect opportunity this time. Normally, well, you try aiming this thing." Jaune joked, leaning the staff in her direction without loosening his grip. The blonde waved him off, briefly turning to her sister for what to do next.

With the task completed, Ruby saw no reason to stick around. She turned to trudge off, ignoring the ache in her muscles from her extreme workout. Her pace was deliberately slow, until she confirmed Jaune and Pyrrha were following. Yang's heavy footfalls were the most distant, and a quick swing of her head confirmed she was trailing the temporarily assembled team. Even then, she didn't move with any sort of speed.

Of Jaune, she saw him tugging the staff's harness over himself as Nora had initially done, letting his P90 dangle limply. Earlier she noticed him reloading the weapon in spite of how useful it was, likely from wanting to be prepared. But as he drew Crocea Mors once again, her eyes lingered on the alien staff a few seconds longer than she had to.

It was a clunky tool, that much was certain. While shooting it Jaune had both hands on the haft, one wrapped securely around a small latch in the middle. The snakelike head was pointed at the Beowolf, but he had the rest of the shaft nestled into his armpit while its counterweight waggled behind him. His posture looked awkward, his expression grimacing throughout the test. However, she saw the staff hurt a Grimm with a rare kind of intensity. Knowing an Aura gave no protection against such a weapon made a cold shiver crawl down her spine.

Unwittingly she started to trudge through the thin brush faster, heading to where the rest of the group waited. The sooner they returned to Beacon, the sooner this day would be over with.

She heard the others before she saw them, heard Nora first rather. Rounding over a small hill, the red huntress caught sight of the awaiting four, standing around with the orange haired girl happily chatting away with Weiss and Blake, Ren silently watching her gesture wildly with the second duffel over his back. Leaving her teammates behind wasn't something Ruby did lightly, but after doing the majority of the work she felt they needed a breather. The other two were winded, though not nearly as bad. They would keep the Grimm off them as they recovered.

While Ruby saw them first, Blake heard her coming well before the others. A sideways glance at the steadily moving line interrupted Nora's stream of one sided conversation, leading her and the rest towards the returning group. To the red toned girl's relief, Ren looked entirely calm now. No sign of the simmering anger from earlier was visible, after Jaune snatched up the staff.

"How'd it go?" Blake inquired as they formed up once again, her bow flicking as she automatically listened in to the surrounding forest. Lacking her sensitive hearing, Ruby had to move her head around to check for activity. A flicker of movement caught her attention, tension briefly flooding her. It vanished as quickly as it arrived when a bird took flight from a small tree.

"Better than the P90." Jaune reported, shaking his head with a small smile. A wry shrug from Pyrrha confirmed his tale.

Neither Ruby nor her team understood why Ren raised a brow, or why Nora clamped her hands over her mouth to stop a snort.

"The one planet in the galaxy where staffs are better than guns, and we're from there." the redhead said, sparing an unidentifiable look at the thick trees.

Yang coughed, extra loud to get attention. "Seriously, what's the big deal with these staffs anyway?"

"I'll explain some other time." Ren said simply, checking for Grimm as well. Jaune sighed and rolled his shoulders, forcing his bemused smile down. Nora didn't put much effort into stopping her giggle; Ruby wasn't the only one relieved at her keeping the maniacal cackling from earlier in check. Weiss and Blake meanwhile glanced to the blonde, wearing identical looks of confusion. She merely shrugged.

Instead of letting the meeting continue, Ruby said, "The camps only a little bit further." as she began walking backwards, spinning to the right direction once she saw them turn after her.

She kept her pace down until she saw them all moving, not quite in single file. Yang was immediately behind her, with Nora at the tail end. Jaune stayed to the side along with Blake, adjusting his pacing as needed. The faunus could have lead the way back, but Ruby took the lead for a couple of reasons. Being worn out from fighting a Geist alone was the main draw, and after her sister the red toned girl was in the best condition out of the team.

The big issue on her mind were the first years; she didn't need any special powers to know there would be problems once they got back. They had disappeared for several hours, made exactly one call to confirm they were fine, and were now returning with four people who looked and acted like soldiers. Explaining any part of the day was going to be hard.

"So what does the staff do? You said back on Earth its like the horrid little Zat weapons?" Weiss spoke up from the middle, interrupting her train of thought. Taking a peek, she saw Jaune slow down to match her speed. The staff bounced against his back as he walked, though her eyes briefly fell to his hip holster.

"Shot this orange stuff, it hurts Grimm like a shotgun shell. Made it real easy to get a few hits in." Yang added with a small chuckle, idly giving the empty air in front of her a couple of mock punches.

"Not a one hit kill sadly." Pyrrha commented as she kept a lookout.

Blake gave her an intrigued took. "Sounds useful. A one two attack sort of thing."

"Yeah, good for a certain cherrypicker." Nora sniggered from the back.

Immediately Yang stopped to whirl around, causing the entire group to pause and look at her.

"What was that!?" she snapped, stabbing a finger at the orange haired girl.

Nora was grinning, looking confident. "You stole a kill after someone else put in the work to wear it down. You're a cherrypicker."

"I am not!" the blonde yelled indignantly, features contorted with anger. From the front Ruby started to warily scan the forest; if her sister's anger didn't draw in Grimm, then her shouting definitely would.

"Well…" Blake trailed off, frowning contemplatively. Replacing Myrtenaster to her waist, Weiss crossed her arms.

"You did leave us on our own to grab the missile." she pointed out. The glare turned on her was met by a defiant expression.

"See?" Nora smiled as she gestured with an arm held wide, holding the hammer so it rested on her shoulder.

Ren carefully cleared her throat. "Pyrrha and I wore the Nevermore down for _you_ to finish it off." he said, to which she flippantly waved him off.

"That was the plan from the get go. 'Sides, I helped too remember? Even did it without taking the one missile we had." she finished by casting a fresh smile at the fuming Yang.

Hearing rustling leaves, Ruby drew Crescent Rose from her back as her sister glowered. She wasn't the only one; Blake and Pyrrha had both looked up with her, weapons at the ready. Glancing to them, she met the redhead's gaze, who nodded. Pointing the sniper rifle upwards just in case, she let the former champion change her grip on Miló, so it was held overhead. In one smooth motion she flung the javelin skywards.

The escalating squabble came to an abrupt halt when a loud screech reached them. A heartbeat later the meter wide Nevermore hit the ground in the middle of the group, plaintively squawking while the bronze tinted weapon had it skewered. Its body went limp, dissolving into ashes a second later. Pyrrha waved a hand, and the javelin flew back into her grip.

As she tapped it on the ground to knock the dust off, Ruby cleared her throat. "So, you guys wanna stay here, or do you wanna get back?"

"Fine." Yang grumbled, slumped yet glowering.

"Sure, soon as…" Nora caught the two males of her team sending guarded looks at her, and she closed her mouth to start walking again.

It wasn't long before Blake picked up, listening intently. "I hear them."

Ruby picked up speed, but after a couple seconds of thought she frowned. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Pyrrha and Jaune meet her look. "You guys should hang back a little, they… they aren't in on the secret."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Jaune spoke up, he and the others silently falling behind the other team.

Pushing her nervousness aside, Ruby kept on the familiar path. They were getting closer; she recognized some of the trees now, and with the uphill walk more and more boulders were coming into sight. Through the gaps in the trees, she spotted the mesa they landed on. A little further and later she saw the relief worthy outline of the Bullhead they arrived with.

Just as she rounded the natural path, a body flew in front of her. Having chosen to keep Crescent Rose in hand for the rest of the trip, Ruby had the weapon in rifle form in the time it took to blink. Said blink was the time the unknown human shaped form to fly several more meters, until a tree broke his momentum. The figure yelped as he bounced off to land on the ground, going limp with his face in the dirt. A long groan left him as he feebly twitched.

Distantly aware of the other's weapons being trained on the teen, the red huntress lowered her own weapon to collapse it into carrying form. Weiss discreetly waved the formerly missing team down, whispering assurances as Yang and Blake quickly searched for whatever attacked the leather jacket wearing body.

Trusting the others, Ruby slid her scythe onto her back as she lowered herself to one knee. As gently as possible, she placed a hand on his shoulder to lightly shake the teen. A fresh moan left him, but the touch was enough to make the effort to get up. His shaking arms pushed on the dirt, painstakingly getting his torso up so he could crane his neck back.

"Hey Val." she preemptively greeted. Once the underclassman opened his eyes, he blinked repeatedly.

"Ruby, uh." Valentine Trail greeted awkwardly, a puff leaving his lips to clear the dirt.

Rising to her feet, she held out a hand to help. Coughing awkwardly, he accepted the offer, and she easily pulled him up to end his make out session with the dirt. When she let go he swayed unsteadily, evidently still dizzy from the thing, or person, which sent him flying. When he checked himself over, his empty hands started to swipe at the dirt; whatever hit him did so hard enough to make his axe Foe-Smiter leave his grip.

"So, what happened?" she asked after a moment, frowning in concern. Once he regained his balance Valentine chuckled bashfully, averting his gaze in favor of inspecting the tree which broke his fall.

"I was, um, sparing with Raoul. I told him to don't hold back, and he… didn't." he admitted, a flush to his cheeks while he shrugged.

"Oh." Ruby got out, briefly looking towards the camp. She didn't see the big teen, but there was no doubt he was close.

"Yeah, not my best idea. But hey, had to kill some time somehow." Valentine shrugged when she returned her gaze to him. "I mean, I got all my work done, we got the camp packed up…"

"Wait, you did?" Ruby interrupted, holding up a hand to stop him. Her brow furrowed until Weiss loudly cleared her throat.

"I caller earlier, told him to be ready to go by the time we got back." she quickly explained.

Valentine frowned at the light flush to the pale girl's cheeks, his gaze falling to her wringing hands. "Yeah, that was weird. So." he faced Ruby once again, keeping the frown in place. "What exactly is going on?"

"I…" the red huntress took her eyes off him, staring at a tree in the vain hope it could help her come up with a response. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, trying and failing to keep her cool.

"Its complicated." Blake saved her, a quick wave catching the underclassman's attention. "But its nothing to worry about." she explained, holding her hands up placatingly. When Valentine shifted his questioning frown to her, the Faunus smiled unconvincingly.

"Yeah, what she said." Yang said loudly, planting her fists on her waist to show some confidence. Weiss smiled too, the second or third most fake since the day began.

The teen blinked once, raising an eyebrow. "Um…"

"Its fine, honest." Ruby insisted, suppressing a gulp. To her relief, Valentine seemed to buy it.

Slumping her shoulders, Ruby barely averted a sigh. It wasn't over yet.

Quickly clearing her throat, she turned to her friends to waved them out of the way. She would have loved to avoid this meeting, but other than leaving a team here for an hour or more, she saw no way to prevent it. Yang and Weiss were all but cringing as they stepped aside, the latter turning to gesture behind her. After a moment of inaudible murmuring the white toned girl narrowed her brow at the other team.

A powerful shove had Jaune stumbling, tripping over himself as he came into sight. His surprise turned into indignation, briefly twisting around to jerk his arms up. Whatever the response was made him groan, tilting his head back to rub his face. Blake offered a sympathetic look, which didn't seem to work. When Ruby pointedly cleared her throat once again, he whirled around to lock gazes with Valentine.

The red huntress could understand why Valentine was staring. Even without factoring in the literally otherworldly uniform, Jaune had a submachine gun dangling from his chest, a staff on his back, and a sword on his hip. It wasn't often someone went out as heavily armed as he was. Clapping her hands together, Ruby caught both of their attentions. She had to force a smile on, painfully aware of how easily this could go wrong.

"Jaune, this is Valentine Trail. He leads Team VERE." she held both hands at the first year with the raised eyebrow. "Val started here a couple months ago, we brought him and his team out here for a training mission." Taking a quick breath, she reversed her stance so she was pointing at the blond instead. "Val, this is Jaune. He's a friend of mine from way back, we… bumped into him and his team by accident earlier. We're giving them a ride back to Beacon, its why the missions being cut short." she chose her wording carefully.

Jaune cleared his throat and extended a hand to Valentine, adopting a disarming smile of his own. "Hi, nice to meet you mister Trail."

Valentine kept his confused frown directed at the stranger in front of him; Ruby could see the gears turning in his head, no doubt noticing the holes in her story. But the important parts of Jaune being her friend, coupled with the (loose) truth of her statement, gave him enough encouragement to reach out to grasp his hand.

"Hi. Uh, so you're Ruby's friend." Valentine greeted carefully, giving him two shakes before letting go. His own eyes kept roaming over Jaune's bizarre outfit. If Jaune was bothered by the teen's staring, he didn't show it.

"Yeah. My team and I, they're back here." he jerked a thumb at the gathering behind him.

Blake was the last one obstructing the young leader's view, and she reluctantly stepped aside. Upon being revealed, each of the three reacted in their own way. Ren had a palm resting on the stock of the P90, one hand adjusting the clothes duffel before perfunctorily nodding. Pyrrha took a moment to straighten her vest, tapping the tips of her boots on the ground. Nora smiled and lightly waved, answering the stranger's attention with a cheerful, "Hi."

"Huh." Val raised his eyebrow at the oddly dressed trio. "She never mentioned you guys before."

"They've been out of Vale for a while, so that's why I never told you about them. Its a surprise visit, otherwise we wouldn't have a problem." Ruby explained, bringing her hands together while she wore a hopeful smile.

"Yes, that's it. Old friends who didn't call ahead." Yang spoke up, grinning as she walked up to playfully elbow Jaune, who halfheartedly winced. Ruby hoped Valentine would buy the story. She knew how weak her explanation was; the one thing she made sure of was telling him the truth.

"You guys from Atlas or something?" he asked, cocking his head to the side. When Jaune opened his mouth, her guts clenched in fear. With so much going on, she didn't think to bring up what the teen's semblance could do.

Before her friend could make a terrible mistake, Yang clapped on his shoulder forcefully.

"Nah, he's from Vale. I'm sure he'd love to tell you what he does for a living, but they've traveled a _long_ ways today. So, how about instead." when Jaune tried to speak again, she clenched her hand hard enough to indent his flesh. "We get back to Beacon, then we'll play story time over lunch or something, okay?" she finished with a wide toothed smile, plainly forced. Instead of fighting back, the blond just cleared his throat, sending a quick peek at Yang in hope of dislodging her iron grip.

Valentine blinked; he may have been less observant than what was ideal, but there was no way he could miss the subtext of the situation. So when he slowly nodded while frowning, Ruby could finally sigh in relief.

"Ooh, kay. So, we're heading back?" he asked, pointing towards the Bullhead.

"Yeah, sure. We'll be along in a second." Ruby agreed brightly, briefly turning her head to the side and cupping a hand by her mouth. 'Tell them.' she mouthed.

As Valentine turned to walk off, Yang leaned in close to Jaune to speak softly. "His semblance makes him a walking lie detector. If you lie, he'll know."

The explanation made the color drain from his features, eyes widening as he jerked towards the brawler.

"When were you going to say something?" he all but hissed.

"Was gonna tell you earlier, but well..." she shrugged instead of finishing, giving the path behind them a lazy nod. Jaune took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment as he exhaled.

Weiss snorted as she took it upon herself to inform the other three, each of them blissfully out of the loop. Briefly matching eyes with Blake, Ruby tilted her head to the Bullhead's direction. The heiress was doing better than when they came in, but she still preferred to have her dark haired friend behind the controls. As she joined her in walking, the red toned girl promised to get her some cookies too. Mentally she amended the thought to give everyone cookies.

Catching up with Valentine wasn't difficult, since he wasn't moving with a purpose. When he paused at a clear patch of dirt, the teen flicked his boot up. The handle of his axe sailed into the air, and he fumbled the initial grip before snatching it back. He took a second to twirl it into the air before sticking the weapon onto his torso again. Ignoring the display, Ruby glanced around the small clearing for the other three. Raoul was never hard to spot; the pillar of chainmail was standing nearby the Bullhead with his mace slung away, scroll out as he methodically read whatever was on the screen. Sensing movement, he glanced up at the returning trio.

"Hey guys." he greeted blandly, putting the scroll away as he appeared completely at ease. Ruby idly wondered if he even used a weapon to send Valentine soaring away.

"Hey man. I have to ask, did you have to hit me that hard?" Valentine questioned caustically, crossing his arms as he leveled an annoyed look at his teammate. The big teen shrugged, his mail rustling with the movement.

"You said don't hold back." he replied. The young leader groaned.

The question of where the other half of the young team vanished to was answered when Blake looked up; when Ruby followed her gaze, she found two pairs of eyes and two sets of stubby ears visible on the top of the aircraft. As she watched, their indistinct forms were returning to normal.

"Hey guys, where've you been?" Elise asked.

"We were getting worried." Erik added.

Disregarding Blake's huff of annoyance, Ruby waved them down. In a blink the Kettu twins vaulted over the top to land beside their teammates, both giving her identical looks of curiosity.

"You guys okay? Any problems?" she asked them.

Valentine rolled his eyes at the two before turning back to her. "Nah, nothing major. The Grimm around here are weird though. I know I said this earlier, but you missed out on what else happened."

"Like what?" she replied, Blake giving her a short nod before strolling to the open passenger hatch. The twins watched her for a moment, perhaps plotting to mess with her in some way.

Raoul spoke up. "Lot of Grimm about an hour ago. Saw some bigger ones in the woods, but they didn't come here."

"Plenty of smaller ones though."

"They were in a real hurry too."

Ruby forced the gulp in her throat down. "That's good. Now listen." she steadied herself under their expectant looks, shuffling her feet. "Some old friends of ours are coming back with us. They've had a long day, so could you please take it easy on them for now?"

"Friends?" the twins chorused, heads cocking to opposite directions.

"From where?" Raoul asked, frowning.

Valentine shrugged. "Dunno. They look like Atlesian troops to me."

Ruby cleared her throat, hearing a small crowd's worth of feet approaching. The four glanced towards the new arrivals, no doubt picking out the same details which bothered her so much.

"I'll explain it later, I promise. For now, please?" she asked, hoping this would be the last hurdle of the day.

00000

 _ **To be continued...**_


	12. Returning Home

_**...Now.**_

00000

A mere twenty minutes later, Ruby was regretting her life choices.

Not the part about being shoved into the corner of the much too small cockpit, currently hosting double the number of bodies the designer normally recommended. Nor was it the nature of two thirds of said bodies, all plastered up to the glass. It wasn't even the discomfort Blake was going through as she kept the tiny craft stable, her piloting being the only other reason she wasn't as crowded as Ruby was; all of them leaving their gear in the back certainly helped. Not to mention leaving Yang and Weiss in the compartment to keep VERE from bothering JNPR, which neither of the girls were enjoying.

Nora was the closest to her, staring unnervingly out the window. A few moments ago, when she led the way in barging into the cockpit, the bubbly girl was grinning from ear to ear, hyped to see Beacon once again. Now her features were alike to the others, a face which showed so little emotion compared to normal. But it was her eyes which truly made Ruby cringe; the bubbly girl's orbs now had a type of cold rage she didn't see often. She knew without looking the others had those same eyes, fixated on the glass.

"What happened?" Ren questioned softly, almost inaudible over the sounds of the engines. He too was enraptured, mutedly staring at what lay beyond.

Just beyond the thick glass window, Beacon Academy sprawled out before them. When Ruby first laid eyes on the school she couldn't stop herself from staring, awed to see such a prestigious academy with her own eyes. It was the most majestic sight she had ever seen.

But no longer.

Several of the spiring towers had fallen, and none of the ones standing were unscathed. The perimeter wall showed signs of hasty patches, breaking the monotonous protection. The central courtyard was a maze of rubble and ill tended plant growth, with easily half the trees missing. Wreckage of a civilian airship remained where it fell, a twisted hulk of broken metal resting as a hasty modification of a wall. Though it was midday, the number of lights which should have been blazing was far smaller than before. In a few areas, laborers were hard at work repairing the damage.

"What…" Pyrrha gulped, unable to tear her gaze from the devastation. "What happened?"

"Was it Grimm? But how?" Jaune half whispered, completely unaware of how close he was crowding Blake.

Outside the academy was little better. Two scattered wrecks were all that was left of the once so mighty Atlesian airships; once their Bullhead was closer, she could see smaller piles of metal from many crashed airships, a blend of Atlas gunships and repurposed civilian aircaft. Many showed signs of salvage work, while others were blissfully rusting away. Scattered at random were shallow depressions, scars from powerful explosions which nature had yet to fully heal. For a few of the crashes, vines had made excellent progress in enveloping them. Since they were approaching from the forests, the cliffside view of a heavily rusted third airship in the shallow water couldn't be seen.

Nora finally looked away, closing her eyes for a moment before leveling a cold stare on Ruby. "When were you going to tell us about this?" she questioned icily. There was nowhere to run, even if the red toned girl could bear with leaving her friends again.

Blake let out a breath. "How do you want it explained? Nice to see you guys, Beacon was nearly destroyed eight months ago. How are you?"

"You should have said something." Jaune said coldly, though his expression was flickering.

Ruby closed her eyes to tap her head against the hull.

"Yeah, I should have. But I was so happy at finding out you were all alive, then the whole Earth thing…" she looked away instead of continuing.

Ren glanced back at the ruined academy, features inscrutable. "I understand."

"What caused this?" Nora asked, turning from Ruby to Blake for an answer. The question made the others pick up, disturbed curiosity written over her expression. The girl's anger was weakening, but it wasn't going away.

Blake was emotionless, keeping to her task instead of turning to any of them. "You said there are evil monsters out there." a jerk of her head towards the sky showed what she meant, "Must have been a shock. We found out evil is a lot closer to home."

"Wait, someone tried to destroy Beacon? An actual person, not just Grimm." Jaune was blinking as he spoke, confusion taking center stage.

"Who?" Ren finished for him.

The red toned girl steadfastly stared at the academy, refusing to make eye contact with any of them. No sign of joy showed on her empty expression. The hand by her side clenched, the only clue to the burning rage she kept hidden. Fury she reserved for only one individual in the entire world, and as of today, the entire universe.

" _Cinder Fall._ "

The formerly missing team was briefly taken aback by the venom infused answer, each of them blinking at her. Ruby wasn't concerned. She was too wrapped up in the memories of everything she cared for being engulfed in flames. "She infiltrated Beacon during the Vytal festival. Arranged for things to go terribly wrong, unleashing hundreds of Grimm after starting a panic. In the chaos, she stole the power of the Fall Maiden." she explained, devoid of empathy.

"The Maiden? But that's a myth." Pyrrha protested, frowning with the others. When Ruby turned her face to them, the redhead flinched.

"No. I thought it was too, until I saw it with my own eyes. It was… I've never seen anything like it before. I don't think anyone has, not for a long time." she answered before looking away.

"But," the redhead looked away for a moment as she tried to word her question. After a moment she sighed in defeat. "How close was it?"

Blake chose to answer on Ruby's behalf, her own voice hollow. "Close."

"Twelve hundred civilians. Five hundred Atlas soldiers. Over one hundred and fifty Huntsmen." Ruby recited, her voice empty as she stared towards the ruined academy. Her clenched fist shook, her expression threatening to crack.

Ren backed up so he rested against a bulkhead. "Its different when you've seen what it was like before." he murmured, taking a breath before glancing to Blake. "I'll assume Cinder escaped?"

"Yeah." she answered quietly, sparing a glance at Ruby. "Last I heard there was a million lien bounty on her, dead or alive. So far there hasn't been any leads."

Jaune sighed, grimacing as he kept track of the red haired girl. "Its too much to hope Cinder died in the meantime?"

"Not a chance. She'll show up again, sooner or later." Ruby answered cryptically.

Rather than continuing, Blake made an alteration to their course. 'Down' in the small craft shifted several degrees, as the Bullhead began to lazily circle Beacon's perimeter. Far below was the small landing area, but she kept them at the same altitude. When Ruby failed to meet her eyes, the faunus locked in the autopilot.

"We should call Goodwitch. She'll set up a meeting with Ozpin." she announced, getting the attention of JNPR. More importantly, Ruby finally looked away from the window.

The red huntress saw her cue, and pulled out her scroll to contact the professor. Internally the anger she felt was dissipating; it took her a moment to notice a light strain on her chest. From the passenger compartment voices could be heard, but over the engines no words could be made out. It made no difference when the device clicked.

" _Miss Rose, what a surprise. I wasn't expecting you back until tomorrow. To what reason are you calling me?_ " the stern voice spoke, slightly crackling over the line.

Her friends offering encouraging looks, Ruby brought the scroll closer to her mouth. "Hi professor. We're fine, but something came up."

" _What happened?_ " Goodwitch asked, her unseen voice neutral in tone.

"Something big." Ruby braced herself, wishing she had a better talent with words. "Can you get us an hour or so with Ozpin?" she asked quickly, suppressing a grimace at her tone.

The line was silent for several seconds, long enough for several of her friends to start frowning worriedly. A quiet huff was her only cue the call was still on. " _Well… I wasn't anticipating_ that _request. I hope you have a good reason for interrupting the Headmaster's work._ "

"Yeah, its um." Ruby looked up, silently waving at her friends. The missing team exchanged looks, all of them settling on Jaune. He sputtered out a groan before dropping his head, though he did hold out an open hand.

He straightened back up after Ruby gave him her scroll, for a second fighting back a gulp. When he brought the device up, Nora gave him a thumbs up as Pyrrha offered a small smile. Jaune nodded slowly, evidently preparing himself. When he spoke, his voice was steady. "Hi professor Goodwitch."

" _I'm sorry, who…_ " the woman trailed off. The speaker crackled again, from a puff of breath too close to the mic.

"Its good to hear your voice. Ah, we're not getting marked for tardiness are we?" Jaune half joked, timidly looking around. Weak shrugs met him.

A gasp came from the device. " _It can't be._ " Goodwitch murmured breathlessly. She would have been almost silent if the volume was a little lower.

"Its fine, today's one of those days." he consoled, offering the scroll back once he was done talking.

" _Well, I uh, um…_ "

"So, yeah. That's my reason." Ruby finished carefully, catching a snort of laughter from Nora.

Goodwitch cleared her throat, sounding flustered. " _I, well, I can see why now. I'll arrange things at once. Proceed to the central tower, I'll meet you there._ " a moment later the line clicked off.

As Ruby put her scroll away, she glanced to the others in time for Ren to clap Jaune on the shoulder, adding, "Good one." in an even tone. Ruby couldn't tell if he was serious or not, and if the befuddled look on Jaune's face was any indicator, neither did he.

"I thought it was funny." Nora commented with a smile. A second later she suddenly frowned, the color draining from her features. "Wait, you don't think she'll mark us for being late, do you?" she asked worriedly, turning her head around for any reassurance.

Pyrrha shrugged, wearing a relaxed smile. "I'm sure its fine. However." she didn't finish, planting a hand on Blake's chair as the Bullhead changed course. Outside the window, the pockmarked spire loomed.

"What's the matter?" Ruby asked, grabbing a handle to keep herself steady.

"You think she'll believe us? I mean, think about it. If you hadn't personally stepped through the Stargate, would you believe anything that's happened today?" she questioned concernedly.

"Know what you mean. This whole day sounds like the plot of a cheap novel." Blake agreed. The swaying of the Bullhead didn't overly affect her, since she had the foresight to strap herself in before takeoff.

Jaune faced the window, grabbing a convenient handle on the ceiling to stop himself from going with the momentum. "No wonder truth is stranger than fiction, fiction has to make sense." he mumbled.

Even occupied as she was, Blake took a second to crane her head around.

"A quote?" she asked with quiet surprise, which he nodded to.

"This Earth guy came up with it, his names Mark Twain." he answered, making Pyrrha give him an unidentifiable look. When he noticed, he shrugged.

"Does he work at the SGC too?" Ruby decided to ask, tilting her head to the side as she stole a quick look at their progress. Her stomach fluttered with their descent, the private landing platform coming closer by the second.

Jaune shook his head, but Pyrrha interrupted him before he could speak. "Twain was an author who died a hundred years ago, he wrote a number of books back them. I thought you told me you weren't interested in the classical literature course?" she directed the question towards him.

"I changed my mind." he defended, frowning at something.

Before Ruby could ask what they were talking about, the Bullhead shuddered. The floor beneath her rattled, the old craft protesting the less than gentle landing. A moment later Blake cut power to the engines, unbuckling herself to stand up. Both Jaune and Nora backed up as much as they could in the much too small cabin, crowding Ren, Pyrrha, and Ruby against the walls. As the faunus stretched her sore muscles, Ruby pointedly coughed, unfortunately into Ren's back.

"Could you let me out please?" she asked, strained from being squeezed into such a small place. For once her small size was working in her favor; if she was as large as Yang, or even Weiss, her position would be so much worse.

The sable haired young man quickly shuffled away as much as he could, which wasn't much. It was enough for Ruby to squeeze past him with a grunt. Bumping into Pyrrha next, she mumbled an apology on her way to the exit. She threw the cabin door open to dart into the passenger compartment, sighing in relief.

"Hey Ruby? Don't mean to tell you your business, but um, this isn't the landing port." Valentine said as he stood up from his seat, the rest of his team staying in their seats.

Stretching for a second, Ruby winced at the sullen looks both Yang and Weiss sported, facing backwards in their seats like sentinels. She offered an apologetic look; the heiress sighed dejectedly, but her sister didn't budge. Promising them more cookies, she turned to face the underclassmen. "Everything's okay. For now though, lets get you guys out of here."

First Raoul, then the Kettu twins, then finally Valentine began to follow her as she strolled down the small cabin, the red toned girl wincing at her creaking muscles. Ruby unlatched the locks holding the hatch in place to throw it open, letting the fresh air flow inside. She had to close her eyes in silent gratitude, internally glad to be out in the open again.

Once the moment passed, she glanced around the small area; the lone platform near the top of the central tower was reserved for VIPs, normally students weren't allowed to park up here. Because of this, the pad seemed eerily abandoned. Dismissing her unease, she hopped out to make room for VERE to join her, each of them stretching as she was. Sensing movement, Ruby glanced inside to see half her team making their way to the open hatch.

Several seconds later an elevator door in the cresting spire opened, revealing a single figure quickly striding towards the landing pad. Upon noticing the red huntress straightened up, coughing to both clear her throat and to get the young team's attention. Only the large teen didn't have the color drain from his features, the twins especially quaking in place.

White blouse, a black skirt, and a small purple tinted cape summed up the woman's outfit. Short blonde hair, glasses, and an unmatched stern expression described her appearance. Professor Glynda Goodwitch looked and acted the part of the disciplined teacher, wearing her authority like a cloak. Right now, the full force of her unyielding will was directed on the small gathering she approached.

"Miss Rose." Goodwitch perfunctorily greeted as she crossed her arms behind her back, nodding before turning to the unnerved VERE. "Mister Trail, Mister Oro, Kettus."

"Uh, hi professor Goodwitch." Valentine replied for all of them, gulping nervously. The twins bobbed their heads quickly, all four eyes as wide as saucers. Only Raoul looked to be at ease.

"I trust your training exercise went well?" the woman inquired, the question directed at the senior. Ruby nodded, taking a breath to steady her nerves.

"Yeah, they did great. Full marks." she answered quickly. Though she wasn't in any sort of trouble, Ruby couldn't help the wave of goosebumps rolling over her skin. Goodwitch tipped her head once in evident approval before turning to the younger students.

"Excellent work Team VERE, you'll get the appropriate credit for this. You're free to leave." she finished, gesturing to the elevator she arrived on.

"Uh, sure. Thanks." Valentine replied confusedly, looking lost until he noticed his team powering to the elevator. A muted cry left the teen while he bolted after them.

Once he was firmly out of sight, Goodwitch turned back to Ruby. This time, her stern look possessed an expectant outline to it. Gulping down a lump, the red huntress turned to the inside of the craft to wave for whoever was inside to come out. Yang hopped out first, rolling her arms around to keep the cramps at bay. Weiss was next, walking stiffly as she fought down a grimace. Both girls nodded in greeting towards the professor.

Ren was the first of the missing team to exit, grabbing the edges of the hatch to steady himself as he hopped out. A second after his boots hit the ground he looked up, freezing in place under the professor's gaze. Nora was next, leaping to thump on the smooth blacktop before straightening up. As both of the apprehensive former students moved out of the way, Pyrrha stepped out gracefully, quickly clearing her throat as she briefly wrung her hands. Jaune was the last, letting out small grunts as he worked his stiff muscles. When he met the woman's gaze, he coughed before adjusting his unzipped vest. All four were unarmed at the moment, leaving their stuff in the Bullhead.

Glynda Goodwitch was still, her glasses doing nothing to disguise her wide eyes. Though not the first time Ruby had seen the woman's iron composure broken, she had never seen it fractured so quickly. On their part, the four members of JNPR were plainly uncomfortable, Ren and Pyrrha both unzipping the vests to match Jaune, while he and Nora shuffled and looked away. Yang crossed her arms, catching Blake slipping out before closing the hatch behind her. Weiss quietly cleared her throat. Mustering up the nerve, Jaune coughed as he met Goodwitch's frozen expression.

"Ah, hey professor." he greeted carefully, shifting his weight around. Upon discovering she'd been staring, the professor brought a fist up to clear her throat.

"Well, this certainly wasn't what I assumed of your call. I'm sure you can understand that I'm rather curious about this." Goodwitch said, her voice strained.

"Um," Ruby went, almost flinching when the woman turned to her. "Long version or short?"

Goodwitch mercifully didn't keep the stare on her for long, glancing at the nervous team.

"For now, short." the woman answered carefully, a frown creasing her features.

Yang stepped up, clapping her hands together as she put on a smile.

"Short, right." her throat rippled as she discreetly gulped. "We… we found an alien artifact in Forever Fall, turned it on, traveled to an alien planet, bumped into Jaune, went to another planet, and came home." she explained cheerfully. Behind her Blake slapped her own face.

"We found it first a while ago, lost our map, and had to crash at this place called Earth. Nice guys. Even offered us a job." Nora took over, waving her hands about as she compounded the damage. Ren closed his eyes to tilt his head back, soundlessly grimacing. Meanwhile Jaune and Weiss were cringing, the latter glancing out to the open air like it offered an escape.

"Also," Pyrrha added, wincing when Goodwitch turned her her. "There are a huge number of worlds out there which are accessible with those artifacts, the job Nora mentioned involves exploring these planets and fighting an evil alien empire." she shrank back nervously once she finished.

"The places we went to were nice. Weird but nice." Ruby finished, coughing to hide her embarrassment. It took a supreme amount of will to halt the impulse to escape, by any means available. Her eyes landed on the Bullhead, though she didn't know how to fly.

Again Goodwitch was silent, blankly processing the information. When the blonde woman took a deep breath, both teams winced empathetically.

"This isn't the most outlandish tale I've ever heard. Its the second, maybe the third if the cursed lizard monster appears again." she closed her eyes to steady herself. Ruby checked the others, noting with equal parts relief and despair how they all looked to be as nervous as she was. When the professor looked to them again, she visibly composed herself. "Alright. I'd like all of you to follow me. As you can understand, both I and the Headmaster have a vast number of questions."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Lets go." Ruby said quickly, glancing to the others as the professor turned to stroll away.

At first she began to stride after Goodwitch, upon thinking it over the red huntress slowed down to keep at the head of the two teams. She glanced to the others to see a blend of reactions, ranging from Pyrrha taking steadying breaths, to Yang's forced cheer, to Weiss searching for escape. Each one had an underlying nervousness to them, and Ruby was no exception. For a moment she considered striking up a conversation, but a glance the awaiting elevator showed her it was a bad idea.

Goodwitch paused in front of the closed door, clicking the button to summon the lift. Several seconds passed before it opened with a ding, revealing an unwelcome visitor.

"Miss Aries!" the professor exclaimed, immediately making all eight of her followers shrink back reflexively. When the woman planted her fists on her hips, Ruby edged to the side to see what had her worked up so suddenly. Jaune, Blake, and Nora leaned to the same direction as her too.

A teenage girl was in the elevator, leaning against the back with her arms crossed. The smirking girl was a faunus, the twin goat horns curling forwards gave her away. She wore blooming red pants, white boots and blouse, and had a long tailed white jacket covering her torso. The look the pale skinned girl gave them was one of playful indifference.

"Whose that?" Jaune asked quietly beside her.

Before Ruby could answer, Goodwitch demanded, "What do you think you're doing here?"

"Got lost, this place is a maze you know. How are you today?" the girl answered, smiling broadly.

"This is the fourth time this month you've 'gotten lost' here Miss Aries. You make it a fifth and I'll be forced to confine you to your room." Goodwitch threatened, no doubt leveling her worst fear inducing stare on the girl.

The faunus pushed herself away from the wall, cracking her neck while strolling to the open door. Once she was outside she gestured for them to enter, eyeing both teams in the same fashion. Ruby knew the look she was giving them, it was the same kind many unpleasant men often gave her sister. The horned girl however made no distinction between any of them, even applying the overly appreciative look on Goodwitch.

"Have fun." the girl said cheerfully as the nine piled inside, waving to show off her white gloves.

"I mean it Miss Aries. You have stretched my patience too far this time." Goodwitch warned as she hit the button. The girl simply waved as the doors closed, smiling the entire time.

"Who was that?" Jaune asked after a moment, noticing the sour expressions on the others. The elevator began to rise, gently pulling down.

"Her names Masculum Aries." Blake spoke up, checking on Goodwitch to see her still fuming. "She and her team transferred here from Haven about five months ago. The girls a troublemaker."

"Team BROM. Its her, another faunus girl named Bael Moss, a kid named Oscar, and this tall guy called Ron." Ruby added, idly tapping her foot on the floor. "I met them a while ago. They're all really nice, Bael especially. Masculum is the only one who isn't."

"BROM?" Nora repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep, Havens weird like that. Good thing you met her now." Yang sighed, rolling her shoulders. "Next time you see her though, prepare to get pranked."

"Good to know." Ren said softly, keeping largely still.

Seconds later the downwards pull ceased, the doors opening after a moment. Goodwitch walked out first, the others leaving at their own pace. The professor turned around in the narrow hallway, examining each of the students before speaking. "Miss Rose, I must ask that you and your team wait here."

Ruby stifled the jerk of fear, telling herself it was alright while glancing to the others. Weiss shrugged, Blake nodded with a quiet breath, and Yang offered a hopeful look.

"Arc, Nikos, Ren, Valkyrie, please follow me." the woman invited neutrally, holding up an arm. Taking a breath, Jaune gave Ruby one more look before walking off after the professor. His friends followed him, steps uneven as they trailed after her.

Though several rooms dotted the hallway, only one truly mattered. The door Goodwitch led them too appeared no different than the rest, unmarked save for a panel to the side. After swiping a small device at the lock, the door opened. The woman turned to face them once again, gesturing inside.

"Headmaster Ozpin will see you now." she said neutrally, giving zero indication she was coming with them.

Jaune exhaled through clenched teeth, swinging his head from side to side. Pyrrha looked nervous, stopping herself from wringing her hands. Nora was trying to smile, but the way she kept her footing showed him she was feeling the same way. Ren appeared calm, the only clue to his anxiety was a constantly moving gaze. The blond young man started to stuff his hands in his pockets, but forced himself to stop.

Nora rolled her head around her shoulders. "We came this far."

With no more hesitation she powered inside. Ren followed her, his fingers curling and uncurling. He and Pyrrha exchanged a look, both appearing unsure. The redhead waved for him to go in first, and with a nod he started walking. Once they were all through the entrance Goodwitch closed the door behind them. After locking it she turned to walk back to team RWBY, seeking their version of the day's events.

Jaune took in the spacious office, a large room devoid of personal decoration. The sole things to break the silver colored monotony were in front of him: the large set of windows to allow the occupant to look down upon the scarred academy, and a single metal desk in the center. He needed a moment to notice the desk had someone behind it, causing him to stop in place. Without thinking he stopped an arms length from Ren's side, both the girls ending up flanking them. Unconsciously he gulped.

The man currently sitting in the throne like chair beheld the men and women in front of him, completely at ease.

"Isn't this a surprise." he said softly, his meticulous voice having a faint hint of emotion behind it.

Silver haired, bespectacled, and utterly at ease, Headmaster Ozpin proceeded to take a sip from his ever present coffee cup. His black suit was the same as it always was, complete with the green scarf wrapped around his neck. Lowering the cup, his free hand fell on the cane resting against his desk.

All four of the former students winced when the master of Beacon slowly rose, quietly grunting with the strain. Nora began to dart to him, but a quick pat on her arm from Ren stopped her, silently easing the girl back in line. Ozpin inexorably continued, his cane tapping on the polished floor with every step he took. He made his way out from behind the desk, apparently to examine in closer detail the team he put together, so long ago. The man's slow pace illustrated his limp to the team, how much effort the pitifully short walk was costing him. Pausing in front of the desk, he gently leaned back to rest.

Despite the ordeal he just went through, the wizened Headmaster possessed a neutral expression as he looked over them.

"I have to say, this wasn't what I was expecting out of this morning. But all the same, welcome back to Beacon JNPR." Ozpin greeted, his arm briefly waving in greeting.

"Um, good to be back sir." Jaune said, catching himself from clasping his hands behind his back. A glance told him his friends were all wearing a grimace, just like his.

The Headmaster nodded once, planting the cane in front of himself.

"Its good to see you all alive and well. Now, I can tell you've had a long trip. But nonetheless I'd like for you to begin explaining. For starters, the reason for your gross tardiness." Nora shrank back, cringing in terror as Ozpin reached around for his cup.

Jaune clapped, taking a short breath. "Right. Where to start..."

He swept his head to the side, catching Ren shuffling his feet while silently calming Nora. Going to his other side, Pyrrha met his look and shrugged sheepishly.

"We could tell him about the gate." she suggested carefully. Jaune's features lit up, and he quickly straightened up.

"Great, Stargate first." he spoke rapidly, a rictus of a smile coming over him. Nora nodded vigorously as she beamed, while Ren briefly inspected his boots.

Ozpin responded with a raised eyebrow. "Star gate?"

"Yeah, its a, um..." Jaune turned to Ren, the girls joining the hopeful staring.

The sable haired young man sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose for a second. "Always asking me." he muttered before straightening up, gathering a breath. "Shorter version, the Stargate is an inter dimensional transportation device, it looks like a large ring made of..."

Ren talked until his throat got sore, allowing for Pyrrha to take over. Jaune added information when he could. Nora had her own winding insights to offer, which her friends elaborated on at every chance. They told Ozpin about the Gates, the lack of Grimm elsewhere, the Goa'uld, Earth, Stargate Command, their own roles in the organization, and as much of the technical information as each of them could remember. The Headmaster stood in place throughout the lecture, periodically sipping from his cup as they talked. There was no doubt he was hanging on to every word they said.

"...And then we gated here with RWBY. That's about it, right?" Jaune glanced at his friends, discovering his jaw was aching. All three nodded with varying degrees of enthusiasm, each drawing back to the Headmaster. As the blond turned to the man with them, he fought down a gulp.

Ozpin was expressionless, holding the cup to his torso as he apparently processed their explanation. He didn't react when Nora discreetly checked her scroll, the orange haired girl finding out an hour had passed.

"Well." he said softly, sipping his coffee.

Jaune let out a breath, schooling his features into something resembling calmness.

"I realize this all sounds unbelievable." he said, fighting the impulse to rub his hands together.

"Its the truth." Ren spoke up, looking to his friends for reassurance.

Emboldened, Pyrrha nodded with them. "I don't say this lightly, but this is the most important discovery since Dust. It'll change all of Remnant."

"I believe you."

"And you can bet things will-" Nora paused with her hand in the air, her expression falling away. "Huh?"

Jaune had his mouth open to begin extolling the Headmaster to see the truth, but no words came out. Slowly he creaked his head to the side, meeting dumbfounded looks. The best he could do was echo, "What?"

Ozpin swirled the contents of his cup. "I believe you."

Nora's arm fell, the girl's jaw lowering while she frowned. "You... you do?"

"Wait." Jaune had to shake his head, frowning as he rubbed his ears. "You believe us. Just like that." he stated flatly, utterly dumbfounded. Ren and Pyrrha exchanged identical looks of confusion.

"I admit your story is incredible." Ozpin sipped from his cup before continuing. "But the very fact that its you four telling me this does wonders for your authenticity."

Nora blinked once, her abject confusion making her face look like a poorly made doll. Not that her friends were any better.

"It's either assume you're all suffering from a unique form of delusional psychosis, which doesn't explain how you quite literally vanished from the face of Remnant, or your outfits for that matter." at that each of the team coughed, shuffling in place anxiously. "Or assume you're telling the truth. The rest follows from there." Ozpin concluded with a swig of coffee, his tone never changing.

"Huh." Nora got out numbly.

His gaze flicked to her. "Is there a problem?"

"Um." she gulped. "Its just..."

"Nobody's ever just, I dunno, got it this quickly." Jaune spoke too, his eyebrow raised as far as he could lift it. "Usually its disbelief, then laughing at the joke."

"Yeah, that's how it usually goes." Pyrrha agreed, nodding carefully.

"Not everyone is as understanding as I am. With that said." Ozpin paused to put his treasured cup back on the desk. "Can I assume more people from this 'Stargate Command' are coming here?"

All of the team save the still dumbfounded Nora nodded, Jaune coughing into his fist. "Yeah, they're coming here by starship-"

"The _USAF_ _Prometheus_." Ren interrupted, catching a look from his leader.

"Yeah. Anyway, it'll be here in..." Jaune paused to bring up his arm, pulling back his jacket sleeve in order to look at his wrist. "A little under thirty three hours."

"For what reason are they traveling here?" Ozpin inquired.

Ren coughed. "Trade would be the first item, swapping technology. If it goes well, they might try to set up an alliance."

"A cool alliance." Nora added, looking to him for approval. His nod made her pump a fist, briefly grinning in triumph.

"I see." Ozpin nodded once. "Then we better start making preparations."

As his former students watched, the Headmaster reached around once more, this time retrieving a hand sized scroll. "For the time being, I'm going to place you in one of the guest dorms. I am also setting aside a small fund which you will have to share, for food and the like." he flicked his eyes towards them once again. "May I suggest a change in wardrobe at the first opportunity?"

As Nora groaned, Jaune and the others nodded quickly.

"Yeah, lets, yeah." he said, frowning at the strange situation. Ren exchanged looks with him and the redhead, brow furrowed.

"I must ask that you remain in Beacon for now. If you wish to go to Vale, inform me first. I must also insist you keep the manner of your arrival a secret for now. But I can assume you already planned on that." Vigorous nods met his words, causing Ozpin to dip his head once.

"Um, thank you." Pyrrha said quickly, a relieved smile worming its way onto her features.

"It is no problem. Once again, welcome back." Ozpin said, clicking something on his scroll.

The door to the office opened, catching the team's attention. Ren and Pyrrha gave the Headmaster sedate waves as they left, Jaune shrugged weakly before waving as well, and Nora finished with a loud, "Thanks!"

Glynda entered several seconds later, quickly locking the door behind her before striding to the desk. Ozpin noted how pale the professor appeared, evidently shaken by what she heard during his conversation.

"I'm guessing the story you were told was as unbelievable as mine." he ventured, making the woman nod guardedly.

"I should discipline them for misuse of academy property, but..." Goodwitch took a breath instead of continuing.

"We'll sweep this under the rug, so to speak. For now, we have to prepare for the arrival of the 'Tau'ri' as the Earth people are called." Ozpin said, reaching for his cup once again.

Glynda gave him a sharp look. "You actually think they're coming here?"

"I do." he confirmed, sipping from his eternally useful coffee. "Team JNPR was rather forthcoming with information regarding this Stargate Command. I do not believe they told me everything however, whether for brevity's sake or some other reason, but it was enough."

Glynda straightened herself up, pushing her emotions to the side for now. "Then we should prepare."

"Of course. Contact the Vale police department, we may need their assistance in this matter. See to it neither RWBY nor JNPR discloses today's events on the net." he calmly ordered.

"And you?" she checked.

"I will contact the Council and the Headmasters of the other Academies. We'll have to manage this situation correctly, otherwise there could be a panic. In the immediate future, I will ask General Ironwood to bring himself and a battalions worth of soldiers here." Upon noticing the curled lips of his most trusted confidant, he paused. "I'm aware of your opinion on Atlas Glynda. But I believe they acquitted themselves well eight months ago, given the situation. In any case, the Earth ship coming here is likely military. As fellow soldiers, they may find it easier to relate."

Sighing testily, Glynda nodded. "Very well."

The corners of Ozpin's mouth curled upwards.

"Exciting times we live in, wouldn't you agree?" he inquired genially, sipping his coffee once again.

"Not what you expected out of today, isn't it?" she asked back.

Ozpin turned to look out the window, perfectly aware of his unusual grin. "No. No it was not."

0000

 **A/N: So ends the first arc, along with this really long day. Credit towards editing as usual goes to KisaragiKei, without whom this story would be so much worse than it already is. Special thanks to finstermunker, who tore this story apart at my request. Dude, you should have posted the entire riff in a review so everyone can see it. Not kidding, point out the flaws so I can fix them.**

 **To everyone who put a favorite and/or a follow on this story, and you know who you are, I thank you from the depths of my black heart. I'd list names, except the number (as of this posting) is currently at 59 and 103 respectively. Seriously, thank you all.**

 **Because I haven't said it in a while, I do not own Stargate or RWBY. No matter how much I wish I did. Anything else you spot isn't mine either. Except for... ah who am I kidding.**

 **Tune in next time for "Arrival from Beyond".**

00000

Ruby picked up when she saw Jaune walking towards the elevator, though her elation was dashed when she saw the hollow look all of JNPR sported. Yang put away her scroll, planting her fists on her hips as she faced them. Both Weiss and Blake stopped what they were doing to pay attention.

"So, how'd it go?" she asked.

Ren answered her, disbelief written all over him. "Well."

"That's good news. Isn't it?" Ruby asked confusedly, turning to each of them for some clue.

"Yeah but..." Jaune ran a hand over his face.

"It never goes well. Like, ever." Nora shook her head while she frowned, Pyrrha nodding on sullen agreement.

Instead of letting herself get caught up in their malaise, Yang clapped her hands.

"Anyway, its over now. So you know what this means?" all seven of her friends adopted curious frowns when they glanced to her, making the blonde grin. "Time for clothes shopping!" she proclaimed with a pumped fist.

"Always on with the clothes." Nora muttered disdainfully, though she spared a grimace at her and her friends' uniforms.

"Because this." Yang started as she pointed to Jaune; the direction her finger was aiming at happened to be his torso.

Blake alone realized what the blonde planned, her eyes widening at her split second warning. "No-"

"This isn't gonna fly." Yang finished, wearing the biggest self satisfied grin any of them had ever seen before.

The groans which ripped through all of them made her cackle.


	13. Code Omake, the prequel to the sequel

**Act 01: chibi fun (suggested by TheDoctor1998)**

Sauntering on stage, Colonel Jack O'Neill was the epitome of rugged badassery. His skillz were such that no one, least of all his enemies, were truly capable of understanding what he was capable of.

Suddenly he stopped, turning to the camera to shout "Fix your grammar!"

O'Neil shouted to no one, alone on the empty set. The praise of the masses sailed over his statuesque cranium.

"There's two Ls nimrod. Do I look like Kurt Russel to you?"

He shouted loudly, suddenly remembering his fling with Hathor.

"The Hathor thing isn't canon. Nice try."

O'Neill started spit shining his boots, now back in basic.

"Never gonna happen. Don't even think of trying that with Carter either. Although..."

The badass turned his thoughts away from his friend/platonic partner, since they were never officially made an item. Daniel/Carter on the other hand, though not canon either, was much better in this exceptionally humble totally-not-lying-through-his-teeth author.

"I can do that too. Watch this" suddenly a horde of Victoria's Secret models ran on stage, brandishing the goods.

*crack* Oneiils constant outcries wore on the patience of all his friends, who silently pressured him to stop talking smack about the fourth wall.

"Oh yeah? What're you gonna do wise guy?"

Watch and see you snarky jerk.

 _ *****_ _ **̧̕͢͢**_ _ **p**_ _ **̵̡̧͠͠**_ _ **o**_ _ **̨͘͞͞**_ _ **ǫ̢̡̡**_ _ **f**_ _ **̵́͞**_ _ *****_

O'Neill sauntered on the empty set once again, but he recognized at once something was wrong. Glancing at a convenient mirror, he discovered what it was; The petty second rate fanfiction author had done as payback. Not quite the level of Thor's idea of what to do with ignorant and/or annoying Humans and Goa'uld, but nevertheless it took him aback.

His head was massive, almost half the size of his body. Said body was more doll-like, possessing stubby arms and legs. He had his non mission uniform on, appearing very much like it was spray painted on rather than being clothing. On top of all that, his features were now very cartoonish. Not the Simpsons art style, but more like the cheap Japanese cartoons on the Saturday morning time slots. Many men (and women) would have chosen this moment to begin screaming at the abomination in front of them.

Jack O'Neill was not most men (or women).

"Hmm..." he hummed thoughtfully, examining his new features. He tried flexing his arms, watching a misshapen lump appear on both arms. Next he tried a strut, pulling it off with decent grace. Off screen someone whistled leeringly, blatantly implying he was doing good. Finally he flashed a toothy smirk, making a flash sparkle over his tooth. O'Neill sealed the deal with a wink, hearing the sound of several women swooning at once.

"Not bad. Could do without the special effects, but eh." he shrugged.

Twisting on his heal, he strolled a whooping two paces before noticing Teal'c on the set with him. Like O'Neill, the stoic Jaffa and (almost) unparalleled badass was now horribly altered as well.

O'Neill thought over his approach, before shrugging again. "Hey Teal'c."

"O'Neill." Teal'c replied, sounding like a basso version of Spock. The way he talked back in the earlier seasons before Earth culture made him extra funny.

"Have you noticed something... _weird_ going on? You know, italicize level strange?" O'Neill moved his stubby arms around as he spoke, humming thoughtfully. _Blink_ went his first attempt, _ploosh_ the second try.

"I have indeed O'Neill. It appears we have been turned into Chibis." Teal'c replied, impersonating a statue.

The abomination shaped Colonel frowned. " _Chibi_?"

"Japanese art style, defined by the wildly disproportionate body shapes. Including oversized heads." Teal'c explained lifelessly.

O'Neill planted his stubs on his hips. "How'd _this_ happen? _If_ it _was_ the _Ancients,_ I'm _gonna_ start _**shooting**_." he stopped in surprise. "Bolding, how'd I do that?"

"I believe we are in what's known as an omake. It would also explain the overall illogic of this situation."

"Hmm, makes sense." O'Neill agreed, rubbing his giant chin thoughtfully. "By the way, can you see the fourth wall too?" he asked, pointing at the camera.

"I do. I am disturbed to think it has been there this entire time." he replied emptily. Internally both men wondered how many more adjectives they could use before they had to start repeating words.

 **Action**! someone shouted from the other side of the fourth wall, the cue for the camera to pan back. It still showed O'Neill and Teal'c, both men now lost (only the former showed it, the latter could be a robot with how stoic he was), but now a chibi woman wearing a red dress leaped on screen, rubbing her hands together diabolically.

"Haha, now that I've reached this place, phase two of my evil scheme will now unfold! Soon, the entire world will be as hammy as me! Cinder Fall!" she proclaimed, snapping her fingers to remind the special effects guy. Seconds later a bolt of lightning struck somewhere behind her, probably a puppy orphanage because 'Cinder Fall uz Ebil!"

"There's that grammar thing again. And who talks like that? Honestly." O'Neill muttered.

Fortunately the real heroes (not SG-1 this time, they're supposed to be on vacation but _somebody_ didn't read the memo. "Screw you." "Indeed.") arrived to save the day, crashing into the set while riding a scrap metal airship. The five chibified heroes leaped out of a tiny door, stylishly landing in a line to brandish gun-sword weapons at Cinder. Because in RWBY, its also a gun ("I greatly desire such a weapon." "Ditto.").

"We'll never let you get away with your evil plan!" shouted Ruby Rose dramatically.

" _Yeah_!" yelled Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long, equally dramatically.

Cinder cackled crisply. "Fools! My ham plague has already claimed you!"

"We can still fight you anyway! The fights are the best part of the show anyway!" Ruby yelled.

"Yeah!" went her team again, since they left their characterization at home.

"You can try!" Cinder put on a Shaolin monk pose. "The five of you are no match for my power!"

"We'll see about that!" Ruby challenged, aiming her goofily proportioned sniper/scythe at the source of the ham. "Wait, five?"

Ruby turned her head, followed by Weiss, then Blake, then Yang. The four girls met eyes with the last member of their team, a chibi girl. She looked a little like a RWBY character, with her black twin pigtails, black long coat, a sword, and a glowing cannon thingy. Her fearsome expression turned into embarrassment when they stared at her in utter silence.

"Um, go team?" she weakly cheered.

"Who the heck are you?" Yang asked.

"I'm Mato Kuroi. You know, your teammate? Of team RWBY? Because I'm a RWBY character too?" she asked hopefully.

All four girls pointed off screen, showing disapproval."But I would make such a cool addition to the show, and I wouldn't have to deal with that yandere psycho that's after me." Mato protested.

None of the main characters relented. Mato sighed and slumped her shoulders, walking away slowly and very sadly. Once she was off the set, the team returned to their battle ready poses while the battle music from FF7 started playing.

 _*needle scratch*_

"H-how!?" the girls exclaimed at once.

Cinder was on her back, utterly defeated while her eyes were replaced by large X's. Above her O'Neill stood triumphant, planting a boot on her chest while he flashed the special effect smile. In ten seconds the badass but otherwise mortal human had vanquished the second biggest villain in the series, all off screen.

"H-how!?" they repeated.

"Its called a plot hole kiddos." O'Neill explained, whipping out a- wait, WTF!? _**How**_!?

"Behold, the author's tablet. Now watch as I change the world for the better. Cue the music." he snapped his fingers, making the camera pan to Teal'c, now dressed like a rockstar. He started on stringing the guitar which was now in his hands, as a powerful voice of god began to sing.

" **IN THE SKIES ABOVE THE ISLES, ACES IN EXILE PREVAIL!** "

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I underestimated him." How-Not-To-Do-Something slurred, downing a tall glass of booze in one gulp.

"It's all good." KisaragiKei reassured, noting how his goofy charge was starting to get _really_ hammered. He glanced apprehensively at the single empty glass, wondering why he decided to drink away his problems. A moment later the teacher wondered why he didn't order a few shots too.

"I created them! Why don't they respect me!" How-Not-To-Do-Something whined, slamming his face against the table. KisaragiKei tried shaking him, but the lightweight was already out cold.

From a random door finstermunker walked in, raising a brow at the plastered author. "What'd I miss?"

KisaragiKei sighed. "He let his story get away from him, it'd be funny if it wasn't so ridiculous."

00000

 **Act 02: the pun off (suggested by CrazedGammaMan1721)**

"Welcome to the tenth annual interstellar pun off competition!"

"Today is a special matchup ladies and gentlemen. In this corner, we have the three time champion and self proclaimed Lord of Snark, Colonel Jack O'Neill, here to defend his trophy. In that corner we have the Sun Dragon herself, Yang Xiao Long. I can see the crowd going wild already! Will O'Neill trounce the competition once again, or will the new kid usurp his throne?"

"Only one way to find out. Let the puns begin!"

...

...

...

Jaune lowered the paper, raising a brow to the other side of the table. "Why is it blank?"

"This sucks." Nora complained while she paced, flipping through her copy of the script. "I really wanted to see General O'Neill and Yang going pun to pun."

"You mean Colonel Danning." Ren corrected from his seat, flipping through his own copy with a frown.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. I still wanted to see those two going at it, pun to pun." the orange haired girl said sullenly.

"I'm not convinced that's altogether a good idea. Yang's puns can get..." Pyrrha trailed off instead of finishing, flipping through page after page. Sitting on the other side of the table, the creator shrugged apologetically.

Jaune cleared his throat. "Don't get me wrong, I do think the cross promotion between World of Remnant and Wormhole X-Treme is a neat idea. But," he looked away, choosing his wording carefully, "Why a pun off?"

"Its what happens when you run a poll on the net, you get one hundred thousand people clamoring for a crossover." Monty Oum explained.

"But a pun off." Jaune pressed. He glanced over his shoulder, getting a good look at the top of the Stargate through the glass.

"Old dartboard trick, and well." Monty waved a hand at the script. "It'd be a lot better if the writers hadn't gone on vacation before finishing this up."

"Hey, how about we invite Yang and O'Neill here to do a pun off?" Nora suggested brightly. Both Ren and Monty nodded thoughtfully.

"I did put in a request to visit Remnant, I'm just waiting on the Air Force to clear my papers." the latter offered hopefully.

"Yang would love to do this." Jaune thought aloud while he scanned the paper again. "I'm still amazed you managed to imitate her so well on WoR." he complimented again.

"Excusing some of the errors, you did fantastic with the entire project." Pyrrha added, finishing up with the notes for volume two and moving on to volume three.

Ren coughed. "The King Taijitu I killed during initiation was about a third smaller."

"Yeah, and I wasn't airborne as much, and Jaune was an even bigger dork." she playfully ignored his dry look, "But who cares? It was awesome." Nora pumped a fist, making the once small time animator smile.

"The first draft was a faithful copy of your reports, but the test audience really liked the high energy fights. Building a chain of events for the characters based off you did take a lot of work though." Monty explained.

"Won't argue there." Jaune leaned back in his seat.

Ren nodded in agreement. "From what I've read so far, you have done a sterling job. Especially with only our reports as material-"

"Why do I die?"

The three Huntsmen turned SGC personnel turned to their friend, while Oum gave the redhead a funny look. Pyrrha glanced up from the notes, a hollow expression on her features.

"Um, what?" Jaune in particular winced at her disturbed look.

"I die at the end of volume three. The Cinder Fall copy shoots an arrow through my character's chest then incinerates her. Why?" Pyrrha demanded coldly.

Monty cleared his throat. "Um, reading through your reports and the documents Beacon Academy sent over here, I determined that you were the most likely candidate out of the student body to replace the current maiden."

"Go on." Pyrrha said, leveling a dangerous look at the civilian. He coughed, sweat popping on his brow.

"And, uh, Cinder would've either had to kill you to get the power or kill you when you tried to stop her, so, it had to happen."

Pyrrha's brow narrowed, and she tossed her script across the table. "Change it."

Monty suddenly blinked, shock replacing his nervousness. " _Wha?_ "

"You heard me. Fix it." Pyrrha commanded. He gawked at her, slack jawed.

"B-but, what? I can't just change that." he protested.

"Don't care, make me-" Ren cleared his throat, making her roll her eyes, "Make the character live."

"I-I can't! That event sets the tone for the next season, establishes and creates new character relationships and events for the next five volumes-" Monty gulped in indignation, "This literally affects the _entire_ series!" he shouted, no longer afraid of the woman who could kill him with her pinky toe.

"Pyrrha, calm down, its just a show." Nora tried to console.

"Don't care." the redhead growled. "You built up her and the Jaune knockoff's relationship, and now you're gonna completely wreck all that, for what? Its stupid."

"It was never gonna happen anyway. Joel and Gem, um, the one based off Ruby, they were going to get together anyway. It was hinted at in the second episode, and frankly, he has better chemistry than with Thetis." Monty pointed out, upset that his life's work was being dismissed so easily.

Pyrrha glared sullenly at him, both Ren and Jaune preparing to stop her if she tried to lunge. But instead of freeing him from his mortal coil, she pushed her chair away to leave, stomping out of the conference room.

"I think she's mad." Nora stated the obvious. Jaune groaned, giving chase.

Meanwhile the civilian contractor, referred by Martin Lloyd as part of an effort to prepare the world for Disclosure, could only stare blankly. "What just happened?"

"Well." Ren cleared his throat. "You did read the mission reports from our team and SG-1, right?"

"I did, but there isn't much I could use for WoR outside of this crossover special." Monty answered, frowning.

"Then you know alternate realities are a thing." Ren went on, making Mr. Oum nod. "The thing is, we've encountered over a dozen over the years. I've met an alternate version of myself who's village was never destroyed for example."

"I understand, but I don't see the relevance here." Monty said, deepening his frow.

Nora chose that moment to jump into the conversation, using her unrivaled skill with subtlety. "Counting ours, there's two versions where she didn't die young. Its like the universe wanted her to kick the bucket." she explained with a shrug.

Before continuing Ren wiped his face, so to avoid groaning. Monty made an 'oh' expression. "Uh, okay. Thats... morbid."

"Yeah, its a sore topic for her." Ren finished.

"Yep." Nora agreed, suddenly brightening up. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we write out this pun bomb instead of your script writers?"

Both men blanched. "Um..."

"Its a great idea, just watch!" Nora proclaimed. "It'll be a gate time!"

"That was painful." Monty mumbled after a moment.

00000

 **Act 03: don't touch! (suggested by Generalallenwalker)**

"So, what is it?" questioned Nora, raising a brow at the box. Jaune and Pyrrha stood as close as she was, while Ren was busy examining the discovery.

After nearly four hours of scouting around a dusty ruin, Jaune was close to calling it quits and returning to Earth. That was until Ren stumbled upon a strange decorated chest, complete with four plain metal bars.

Pyrrha shifted her weight, looking over the top of the box for any details her friend could miss. "I think it looks familiar."

Jaune was rubbing his chin, mentally debating. "Same here. I swear I've seen something like this before, but I can't remember where."

"Wanna haul it back?" Nora asked.

"Hang on." Ren grunted while he stood up, briefly clapping his hands to shake off the dust. "I think I know what this is. Who made it anyway."

"Who?" asked Jaune interestedly, the girls nodding as well.

"This has the same design as the old artifacts at Area 51, some old rebel SG-1 bumped into years ago. I think his name was Machello." When he looked over his team, blank stares met him. The sable haired man sighed. "The anti Goa'uld devices? The body swapper?"

"Ooh that!" Nora said brightly, a smile coming over her. "I remember that report, General O'Neill and Teal'c swapped bodies for a day or something right?"

"I thought so. If I recall correctly, he made the machine in order to prolong his own life. To keep up the fight against the Goa'uld." Pyrrha commented, giving the box another look.

"Think it works?" Jaune asked instead, frowning thoughtfully.

Ren shrugged. "No idea. The only way to find out is by testing-"

"No." Jaune interrupted.

"-Which I know you're not going to approve of." Ren finished anyway.

"I dunno." Nora shrugged, "This could be a neat find. Besides, how are we gonna know if it works or not?"

Jaune could see the point the ginger girl was making; he would have almost believed she was sincere, if she didn't have a massive grin plastered over her features.

"Alright, we're taking the box back with us. _But_." he stopped Nora mid squeal, "We're gonna be very cautious with it. No direct contact." he told them.

Pyrrha cracked her knuckles, taking a breath. "Alright, allow me."

Ren quickly put himself in the way, brushing over the box. "Wait _wait wait."_ he said frantically, fortunately making her stop. "We don't know what effect your semblance might have on the machine. It could break it, accidentally trigger it, or just blow up. We have to manually carry it." he stressed, making Pyrrha back off with her hands up.

Jaune just sighed. "This is gonna end badly." he muttered. When he looked up again, the blonde straightened himself up. "Okay. Hunt around, look for chains or something. Heavy duty stuff so we can lift it. Alright?"

"Ha, don't be such a wimp." Nora declared, grabbing the device before any of them could stop her.

Nora and Ren blinked at the same time, for a second both were blank faced. Then they snapped out of it, looking at themselves.

"Crap, I was afraid of this." Nora muttered, looking herself over without a hint of a smile.

Ren felt his face for a moment, before adopting the single largest smile any of them had ever seen. "I'm Ren now, awesome!"

Meanwhile Jaune and Pyrrha stared mutedly, eyeing the box first. 'Nora' noticed and crossed he arms, leveling a nonplussed look at them. "Look at that, it works."

Jaune pointed at 'her.' "Ren." he said weakly, Pyrrha managing only a puzzled nod.

She nodded, while the black haired man smirked. "This is cool, like seriously cool. Ooh, I've always wanted to feel what its like to have a-"

" _Don't_." All three of her friends warned the body swapped girl, stopping her from using the hand for nefarious purposes. It also made the perpetually calm man pout; somehow that sight was more disturbing than the orange haired girl being serious.

"You're no fun." Nora said sullenly, settling for playing with his hair instead.

Ren groaned and rubbed her temples. "Okay, if I remember right, we can't just swap back. We'll need another person to swap around with, two would be better."

"Oh _nonono_." Jaune stepped back, waving his hands in front of him. "No ones borrowing my body." he declared, making both of the women on his team narrow their eyes at him. Nora didn't, he was busy practicing karate moves instead of paying attention.

"Jaune, are you unwilling to help your friends out? The ones you swore to stand by to the end?" Pyrrha warned.

"But-"

"Especially since you still owe me after the spiked punch incident." Ren warned too, crossing her arms.

The blonde sputtered, drooping in utter despair. "Fine." he agreed sullenly.

When both the girls pointed to the box, Jaune reluctantly dragged himself along to a set of bars. An overly dramatic sigh preceded him grabbing the bars, plainly uncomfortable with what was about to happen. Nora ceased his attempt to be a ninja when he saw his leader complying. Before either of the girls could stop him, the swapped girl squeed and darted over, grabbing the opposite bars.

Both men blinked; 'Jaune' looked down at himself and giggled maniacally. "Yay, I'm in charge now!" Nora yelled, leaping in joy.

Meanwhile 'Ren' had a pleasantly surprised expression while he worked his limbs. "Hey, this isn't so bad."

"Your turn." the actual Ren said, shoving Pyrrha forward. The redhead coughed nervously, briefly hesitating before grabbing the bars. Jaune touched the other side, creating a third repeat of the blinking game.

"Oh." went Jaune, pausing to marvel at being (if only for a few moments) the onetime champion. She gave her chest a look, trying desperately to resist the opportunity.

Meanwhile Pyrrha flexed his new hand, giving the unfamiliar sensations an appraisal. He didn't have time to do much, since Nora grew bored of his new leadership to quickly get them to swap. Now that she had the chance, Ren grabbed the bars before Nora could let go, switching them.

A few seconds later the team stopped the game of musical bodies, looking around in confusion.

"Okay, who's who?" 'Pyrrha' asked.

"I'm Nora!" proclaimed the orange haired girl.

"Back to normal." said Ren, softly smiling at being where he belonged.

"Um..." 'Jaune' cleared his throat pointedly, making the redhead wince. Together they grabbed the bars, swapping for what they hoped would be the last time.

"Okay, that's better." Pyrrha smiled, exhaling in relief.

Jaune nodded as well, patting himself over quickly. "Alright, that went easier than I expected."

"Hey, question." Nora spoke up, pointing at the box. "How are we supposed to move it now?"

In the deserted room, on an empty planet, the four huntsmen turned SG team turned from each other to the box. Jaune was the first to slap his face, and the first to groan.

00000

 **Act 04: Tea time (yours truly)**

Cinder stared. Normally the mastermind turned Maiden was immune to petty things such as shock, she didn't get to where she was by doing a howler monkey impression to every little thing which seemed out of the ordinary after all. Otherwise she would have never gone beyond Mercury, let alone Beacon.

"Cinder." the dark witch herself, Salem, greeted neutrally while holding a tea cup.

" **Miss Fall.** " said the man obscured in black robes, his voice sounding unnatural. In his hand was a tea cup as well.

The woman was on her way to deliver a report to her master, uninformed that there was a guest in the decrepit castle. One Salem had apparently decided to entertain over some tea.

"My apologies Cinder, it slipped my mind to inform you of our guest." Salem said with something vaguely resembling human regret in her voice.

" **I am Anubis. I came here to discuss business with your master.** " the robed man rumbled.

"He is quite polite. We were conversing about a potential arrangement which could benefit us both, perhaps you wish to join us?" Salem offered.

Cinder dropped the couple of papers on the table, spun in place, and strode out just slowly enough to avoid outright running. Both Salem and Anubis watched the fleeing woman with puzzlement, although neither had a readable expression to show it.

" **Your servant is rather flighty.** " Anubis noted.

"A consequence of your arrival I would guess. This won't affect matters, will it?" Salem turned to question coolly.

" **Not at all. Now, shall we?** " the System Lord invited.

"Let's begin." the Witch agreed.

 _Oh dark powers I want him_ , thought Salem, showing nothing.

 _ **Oh my me she's hot**_ , thought Anubis, suddenly glad he had no face.

It was highly fortunate there were no mind readers for thousands of kilometers of the Castle. Even if there was, they would not have lived much longer, not after hearing that exchange.

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 **A/N: So... yeah. That happened.**

 **Guest: I really wish you'd leave a name, so I don't have to use a roundabout means of replying like this. I will say you are right, but remember; I know my glacial update speed makes it seem a long time, but the events of the past eleven chapters have occurred over the course of only six hours or so. Ruby had her entire world shook up in less time than an average workday, so she's understandably going to be a little off kilter. Give the poor girl some time, then she'll be back to normal.**

 _ **B/N: Welp I drank a little bit too much of the strawberry sunrise. I'm going to have to handle this myself and rush to my fic I'm working on. I'm on about ch 10 of my fic, Don't worry fellas, it'll be out when I hit chapter 15... or never. Just be glad HNTDS isn't jumping into the crazier omakes.**_


	14. Arrival from Beyond

**A/N: now that's done, onwards.**

 **Meh: not what I meant, but okay. You could have been harsh, you could have been insulting, but instead... thanks. I mean that.**

 **For the rest of you guys, I like you, but no more omake suggestions. Not until I learn how to be funny.**

 _ **B/N: bwahahahahaha**_

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The door swung open soundlessly, without so much as a creak of the hinges. While any other user was forced to physically touch the large double doors, the one who passed the opening didn't have to deign herself to such an action. Once she was firmly through the entrance, the door closed on its own accord.

A single black robe covered much of her body, save only for her elbows down and her collarbone upwards. The space where her legs were didn't move from the movement, like she was flowing across the floor rather than walking. Toneless skin showed on the arms and head, resembling a corpse more than anything else. Black markings covered her arms and face, creating spacing rings on her large hair bun. Her age was indeterminate, though she appeared as a mature woman. Of her unsmiling face, the detail which grabbed one's attention first were her eyes. They were pitch black, with blood red irises.

 _What_ she was, no one could say. The being was neither human nor faunus, but something else entirely. Something older, something the world had forgotten long ago. All that was clear was what she _wasn't_.

She strolled across the room, passing by the large table with its many chairs. Above the table, the chandelier's many candles burned brightly enough to illuminate the entire room. Outside the enormous windows was a view of both majesty and despair, a barren wasteland bereft of any life. All there was in this forsaken place was the Castle, and those its master allowed into her domain.

At the head of the table was an ornate throne, meant for one individual and one individual only. The master of this place said nothing to her subordinate patiently waiting nearby the throne, the only acknowledgment she gave was a curt nod. It changed once she had taken the seat, crossing her arms in front of herself as her calculating gaze fell upon the young woman she summoned.

Those who knew of the woman, those few cursed mortals, called her Salem.

In comparison to the unnatural being on the throne, anyone would seem normal. Such was the case for the woman with the ragged black hair and red dress standing at attention, with her scarred eye focused on the pale master. Clasping her hands behind her back, she awaited the cue to start.

"Your report Cinder." said the crisp voice, dispensing with the pleasantries. The most wanted woman in the Four Kingdoms took a steadying breath.

"Our infiltrators have successfully penetrated the staff and student bodies of Haven and Shade Academies. Atlas is proving to be as difficult as ever, but our moles there have been making excellent progress in the past month." recited the woman named Cinder Fall, the apparent mastermind behind the Battle of Beacon and now the Fall Maiden.

A tip of Salem's head showed she understood. "The other Maidens?"

"The Winter Maiden is still an unknown, though we're certain her location is somewhere in northern Atlas. Both the Spring and Summer Maidens have been located, although the former is being kept on the move. Our operatives in the area are confident she can be captured however, they'll retrieve her once all their assets are in place. The latter appears to be under heavy guard in Shade, but the defenses seem to be little better than Beacon." the corners of her mouth twitched, but her master didn't make a comment.

"What of Khan and Lionheart?

"Thus far, Sianna Khan is proving unreliable, but her power base is heavily eroded. Whether she realizes it or not, Taurus is the true leader of the White Fang now. If she tries to regain her influence, Adam will happily remove her from the equation. In either case, we can count on them for any assistance that leads to the downfall of the Academies. Lionheart on the other hand is proving most cooperative, its a wonder we haven't contacted him sooner."

"Good." Salem spoke, a faint smile ghosting over her features. In contrast a faint scowl crossed Cinder; there was only one issue left to deal with.

"Beacon is still rebuilding, current estimates put the academy at full functionality in roughly four years." Cinder reported through gritted teeth.

Salem turned her calculating gaze on Cinder, her expression a featureless mask. "You are displeased at Beacon's continued survival." A statement of fact, not a question.

"It wasn't my fault." Cinder growled, barely reigning in her fury.

In response the being tented her fingers, leveling a neutral stare upon the Maiden. "Hazel and Watts continue to remind you of your failure, after I told them to stop."

Cinder's scowl deepened at the unspoken offer. "I'm not some brat who's being bullied-"

Salem held up a hand, silencing the young woman. Though she said nothing, Cinder realized the woman was displeased by her outburst. Forcefully calming herself, she schooled her features back into something resembling calm.

"I am not happy about your failure Cinder, and make no mistake, it was _failure_." Salem spoke, leveling her dark gaze on the woman. "You could have, and should have done more to prepare for unexpected complications. But having reviewed the events which transpired, I cannot lay the full brunt of the blame upon you."

Cinder's countenance flickered, but she dared not interrupt her master.

"I did approve of your existing preparations, I too believed they were sufficient for the situation at hand. But how could you have foreseen the command ship going down so quickly, or the self sacrifice of the foolish faunus? To say nothing of the Dragon's irregular behavior, going after an unknown foe rather than attacking the Academy. With their forces rallying, fleeing before you finished off Ozpin would have seemed to be your only option. To repeat my words from when you first returned to me, I do not hold you responsible for the failure to destroy the Academy." Salem lectured her evenly.

"I know." Cinder replied sullenly. She wanted to make a quip about the Maiden power being the one reason she still lived, but the potential reprisal wasn't worth it.

The woman nodded, a tiny smile gracing her ethereal expression. "Despite what the others believe, there is opportunity in Beacon's survival. The warnings made by Ozpin." her lip curled at the mention of the name, "To the others have gone unheeded. The defenses of the main Academies are no better now than what they were a year ago, leaving infiltration an easy task. They believe they have nothing to fear. The fools will pay dearly for their arrogance."

Cinder nodded in agreement, but her feelings weren't fading. But for now, all she could do was swallow the anger and move on, ignoring the insults from the rest of Salem's inner circle.

"In time, you will get the chance to redeem yourself. When Haven and Shade are in ruins, I will leave you free to destroy Beacon entirely. For now, have patience." Salem finished.

When the door swung open once again, both of them snapped their heads up. Caught under the twin gazes, the green haired interloper nervously cleared her throat.

"Umm," Emerald Sustri stuttered, the dark skinned young woman shrinking back under their attention. Cinder noticed a scroll clutched in her hands, held close to her now fearful body.

"Child." Salem's voice had a stern edge to it, sending bolts of fear through Cinder's normally cocky ally, "You know better than to interrupt one of my meetings."

Emerald cleared her throat, edging back to the door. "I'll be-" she started, freezing when the robed woman beckoned.

"Doing so means the matter must be important. Now, come here." Salem crisply ordered.

Emerald reluctantly walked to the end of the table, offering an apologetic look to Cinder along the way. She stopped a meter away from the throne, bringing the scroll up and briefly coughing into her fist.

"Our infiltrator at Beacon relayed some information to us a few hours ago, I think you need to see this." she explained quickly, aware of Cinder's narrowing gaze.

An errant gesture from Salem was her indicator to continue. With her hands shaking a little, Emerald brought the scroll up and activated it. In seconds she turned the device around to show the two women.

"Who is this?" Salem inquired.

"This is-" Emerald tipped the screen back, and bit back a curse. There was a goat faunus girl taking up most of the picture, sticking her tongue out while she held up two fingers, as a dark skinned human boy was falling with a surprised expression in the background. She hurriedly moved to the next photo, plainly hoping she didn't make another mistake.

Cinder leaned in closer, frowning at the picture. Salem's expression was unreadable, though she was evidently interested in what the device showed her.

"This was taken several hours ago, our informant's underling stumbled on them when she was looking for weaknesses in the new construction." Emerald explained.

"Who do we have on the ground there?" Cinder questioned, staring at the gathering in the photo. She had to force herself to avoid fixating on the little girl with the red scarf, lest she incur more of Salem's displeasure. The image of a blond haired man in a green colored uniform helped; he was the most visible, but she could see at least three others clad in similar outfits around the student team.

"Bael Moss, she's with the White Fang. Her own group is posing as transfer students from Haven, they've been feeding us intel on Beacon's status for about five months now. Most of the information is mundane stuff I wouldn't bother you with, but I thought you'd want to see this." the green haired woman nodded as she spoke.

Salem tipped her head back, her eyes locked on the image. "Who are they?"

"I know this is going to sound unbelievable, but I'm sure these are students who disappeared almost three years ago." Emerald answered with amazement, flinching at the ethereal woman turning her gaze. Quickly clearing her throat, she went on. "Team JNPR. They were first years who vanished in Forever Fall a while ago, when we were still setting up our operation in Vale."

"Where did they go?" Salem questioned further, staring at the image.

"That's the thing, they were never found. The team was declared killed in training years ago, this is the first time any of them have been seen since then. The spy did catch the professor saying she was taking them to the headmaster." the green haired girl elaborated.

Cinder started to reach for the scroll, but stopped when she noticed Salem had yet to take her eyes off the screen. Lowering her hand, she had to settle for leaning down to get a closer look. "Are those uniforms?"

Emerald shrugged. She opened her mouth, but froze when Salem leaned back. A gesture from her indicated she was done looking, and she pulled the device back. One look at the black haired woman told her she wasn't done with the matter.

"Miss Sustri, what is your current objective?" Salem questioned. Strangely, she didn't make eye contact with either of them.

"Well, I'm going to Haven to oversee-"

"Unimportant. Assign someone else to the task." Salem interrupted, stunning both women. "Go to Vale, and investigate these missing students. If they are not who you believe them to be, then determine their identities. If they are, then find out where they have been in the interim. Take Tyrian with you."

Cinder balked. "That psychopath? He'll kill them-" she paused when Salem glanced at her. The flat gaze told the woman her master knew already, and had planned for it.

"Regardless of their identities, find out who they are. Why do they have those outfits. Where did they come from. And why have they arrived now. Did Ozpin summon them, or is it coincidence? Wring all the information out of them that you can get. And when you are finished, terminate them." Salem commanded.

Stopping a shiver, Cinder coughed. "I'll go with them-"

" _No._ " her master spoke once, silencing her. Emerald was painfully aware of what Cinder's blinking gaze meant, and knew what was about to follow.

"But-"

"You are to remain here for now. Do not argue with me." the woman spoke with an air of finality. While Cinder all but shook in impotent rage, Salem turned her gaze back to Emerald. "Why are you still here?"

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Jaune hummed tunelessly while he checked himself over one more time, idly moving one of his bracers to a more comfortable spot. Once he felt it was good enough, he looked up to check their ride's progress, discovering the view outside was slowing down. Long ago the blurred sight would have given him a serious case of motion sickness, but he didn't woozy from things like that anymore.

He rose from the bench when he felt the tram come to a stop, tuning out the one sided conversation behind him. When the door slid open he followed the red toned girl, working his arm to get the blood flowing. He could hear the redhead behind him sighing in relief while she stretched sore muscles, although the ride to Vale was just ten minutes long. Idly Jaune felt his chest for a moment, feeling the steel armor from his fingerless gloves.

When it came time for clothes shopping, the two teams had collectively decided it was time to try something new. Jaune's foray was the most modest of the bunch; he kept the torso plate and the bracers, but ended up dropping the shoulder pads, feeling they weren't needed. Past the armor, all he ended up buying for clothes were new jeans and a short sleeved hoodie, on top of a pair of sneakers. Nora had cracked jokes for his lack of imagination, but the results suited him fine. Jaune wanted a day-to-day outfit, fancy stuff wasn't his speed.

Ruby was full of energy as she moved about, twirling around to meet her long lost friends as they walked out to the artfully decorated streets of Vale. The red huntress smiled at them looking upon the city for the first time in a long while; the leaves were starting to turn brown and gold, but the shining sun made the weather seem like a mild summer day.

"So, what do you guys wanna do first?" she asked brightly, holding her hands behind her back while she went to each of them.

"I didn't have any plans." Pyrrha admitted, sparing a look around. Her attempt at 'new' went through several revisions with both Nora's and Yang's enthusiastic help, which was left at resized corset along with a new skirt, both colored bronze. She ended up passing on her circlet (claiming it chafed too much) and her greaves, adopting a set of thick bracelets instead. Finishing it off was her old sash, though it seemed smaller now.

"I know some good places to visit." Ruby offered, her mind churning for options. "I think Yang can get you guys into a club if you wanted." she tried, although she knew her sister's reservation had already came and went.

"Actually." Ren began, working his shoulders. In the same vein as the rest of his team, during the shopping trip yesterday he found a new version of his preferred shirt, having cape like flaps as well as an open collar. To compensate for the garment ending at the shoulders, he picked up a set of disconnected sleeves which showed off his impressive biceps.

"We're gonna go sightsee!" proclaimed Nora, jumping in place. Her choice of wardrobe was of a pink skirt, a white blouse, and a black jacket. The boots were new too, being pink (as if she would pick any other color) while going up to her knees. As to be expected, she took to the new outfit with glee.

"Oh." Ruby nodded, her smile dipping.

Upon noticing Nora gave her a wide grin. "Its just for now, Ren wants to go check out some places. We're gonna hang out for real later, sound good?"

"Just visiting the bank first, it shouldn't be more than a couple hours. We'll meet back here, okay?" he offered, glancing behind them when the tram door closed. Today he had chosen to let his hair down, but it's shortened length only covered his neck.

"Yeah, sure." Jaune agreed with a shrug to loosen up. Both Pyrrha and Ruby nodded too, making Nora give them a thumbs up.

"Great! Hey actually, you wanna tag along Rubes?" she asked brightly, planting her fists on her hips. Ruby shook her head.

"Thanks, but I think I'll hang out with these two for now. I'm free later though." she answered with a noncommittal shrug.

Nora kept her smiling gaze on her for a couple seconds, briefly flicking her eyes beside the girl. She ended up shrugging, making her new jacket rustle.

"Suit yourself. Later!" she finished, spinning on her heels and waving at the trio. Ren gave her a short wave of his own before he walked off after her, overtaking the shorter girl easily.

"So." Ruby spoke, spinning around to meet her friends' attentions. "I, uh, should've asked first. You guys mind if I stick with you for a bit?"

Jaune gave the back of his neck a scratch. "Well..."

"Sure." Pyrrha agreed quickly, causing the blond to swivel his eyes to her. She met it with a smile, although her expression was momentarily guarded. "It'll be alright. But don't you have classes today?"

"I do, but my grades are good enough for me to take a day off. Blake told me they were anyway." Ruby had a brief pensive look as she recalled what her friend told her. "Graduation is in a few weeks anyway, so I think I'm in the clear as far as schoolwork goes." she shrugged off the matter. She felt some regret at leaving Weiss and Blake to their respective assignments, but since both girls were still mad at the blonde for abandoning the fight in Forever Fall, she thought it'd be okay to get away for a while.

"If you say so. I guess it's alright." Jaune decided, resting a hand on Crocea Mors' grip.

"Great! So, where do you guys wanna go?" Ruby asked, letting her arms swing as she looked to both of them. Pyrrha raised a fist to clear her throat.

"Actually, do you know any good ammo shops in this area? I'd like to pick up some bullets for Miló." she nodded towards the collapsed javelin and shield on her back, the tip of her short ponytail brushing over the top.

"Sure, there's this good place not too far from here, Morty's Munitions. Blake and I both buy from them, its a little pricey but I haven't had a single misfire since I started shopping there." Ruby answered, almost hopping in place as she jabbed a thumb towards a seemingly random direction. She idly jostled the heavy rifle/scythe on her back, mentally recounting her own stockpile.

"Alright, lead the way." Jaune said, gesturing for her to go in front of them.

Ruby turned to stride, all but skipping. She had to keep her pace down, reminding herself of her two friends following her at a far more relaxed speed. The result was both of them staying at her sides while they strode down the sidewalk, passing by a few people along the way. Their weapons drew attention from a few pedestrians, but no one commented; Huntsmen were a common sight in this district, and not one passerby gave them a second glance. It suited her fine, since it saved the trouble of someone realizing two of them were supposed to be dead.

"So..." Ruby started, swinging her head around towards her flanking companions.

"You doing okay today?" Jaune asked, alternating between her and where he was walking. The red toned girl noticed how he kept searching his surroundings, rationalizing it as him worrying too much.

"Yeah, all good here. How about you guys?" she asked back, periodically checking in front of herself too, lest she walk into a pole.

"Good I guess. Little tired." Pyrrha added, her own gaze examining around them too. "Was up late last night reading news on the net."

"Same here, catching up on what we missed and all." Jaune gave a shake of his head, letting out a small breath. As if on cue, he brought up a hand to stifle a yawn. "You don't know how glad I am that Remnant has coffee though." he added, making the redhead nod sympathetically.

"You have a coffee habit yet?" Pyrrha half joked, adopting a half smile while she looked at the younger girl.

Ruby shook her head, wrinkling her nose. "I can't stand the taste of the stuff, doesn't matter how much milk and sugar I put in it. Dunno how Yang or Weiss can put up with it, let alone you guys."

"Your loss. Honestly, I wonder sometimes how I got by without caffeine before." Jaune craned his neck back to glance at the sky, spotting a distant airship making its way towards the city.

"No kidding. I mean it, I tried breaking the habit a while ago. Only lasted a day." Pyrrha shook her head, perhaps out of self reproach.

Ruby nodded along, tilting her head to the side while she decided on how she was going to word herself. "So, find anything interesting while you were catching up?"

"Nothing that's very important, except, well..." Jaune began uncertainly, looking away.

"I discovered there's a charity in my name, which was a little disconcerting." Pyrrha interrupted. "Its run by my old sponsorship. Last night I had half a mind to call my old manager, but I think it'd be more trouble than what its worth." she admitted, bringing up her arms to rest against the back of her neck.

"Huh, weird." Ruby tried imaging what it would be like to have a charity, but gave up when another thought occurred to her. "That reminds me actually, have either of you called your parents? Let them know you're okay and stuff?"

Both boy and girl looked away, frowning with a flush to their cheeks.

"I was going to call my mother, but I was worried she'd think it was a prank call or something. I mean, I'm supposed to be dead." Pyrrha explained bashfully, grimacing.

"The 'rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated' thing is why I didn't call my parents either. I'm afraid they'll think it's some sick joke, so they'd either hang up or charge over here to find the faker. It'd be a heck of a mess." Jaune exhaled, rolling his shoulders while he blushed weakly.

"Oh, didn't think of that." Ruby nodded sympathetically, noticing the redhead giving him an unidentifiable glance. Glancing at the street sign, she noticed they were only a short distance from the ammo shop. There weren't as many people around this time in the morning, although that was going to change in a couple hours.

"Gonna have to get some time off to go visit them soon. Say, what about your family?" Jaune asked, bringing her back to the present.

"My dad's doing good, he's a little bored these days. Last time I got in touch with him he mentioned something about coming to visit for graduation, but I dunno if he'll actually come. Haven't heard from my uncle in a while." Ruby said half to herself, creasing her brow in thought.

"Good to hear." the blonde nodded with a small smile. In contrast, the redhead cleared her throat.

"Actually Ruby, do you mind if I asked you a personal question?" Pyrrha spoke carefully. When the smaller girl nodded, she took a quick breath. "I want to know more about the battle."

Just like that, Ruby's cheer evaporated. Exhaling slowly, she nodded. "Sure."

"I mean, if you don't want to..." the redhead backpedaled, quickly waving her hands.

"No, no. Its okay." Ruby shook her head, steadying her nerves.

"It's fine if you don't want to talk about what happened." Jaune offered with a placating hand. "Just, well, you didn't look like you wanted to discuss it yesterday."

"I know." Ruby nodded quickly, forcing herself to give him a weak smile. "Its just, I was a little overwhelmed yesterday. Between you guys, the Gates, Earth, all that stuff, I had a lot on my mind. I'm better today, honest." Neither looked convinced, causing her to try harder. "I'm fine, ask me anything."

"Well..." Pyrrha sucked in a short breath. "Just one thing." she said quickly, making the smaller girl nod. "I looked at several sites and periodicals on the battle, but none of the legitimate sources mentioned a thing about the Maiden."

Ruby faltered, an uncertain look crossing her features. "About that... I wasn't actually supposed to tell you guys about the Maiden."

"Really?" they quipped in unison, briefly glancing at each other. Ruby chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of her neck while her cheeks flushed.

"You see, I was one of few people who saw what happened, so afterwards Ozpin made me promise not to tell anyone. Yang was out cold then, but she was the only exception he let me make. I'm not allowed to talk about it, but I figured you guys would want to know." she admitted guardedly.

"Right, I get it. You don't have to worry about us telling anyone, we get how classified works." Jaune hurriedly interjected, showing worry while he reflexively looked around.

"Well, I won't say anything if you don't. So, we'll just pretend you didn't tell us?" Pyrrha offered, smiling hopefully while she fought back a wince.

"Yeah, sure. Thanks." Ruby agreed with a rapid nod.

Stopping at a streetlight, the trio waited patiently for the glowing sign to change. A glance told Ruby there wasn't a moving car in sight, but she didn't think for a moment of crossing before it was time. Once it did switch, she took off with as much restraint she could muster.

Once they were on the other side, Jaune cleared his throat. "Wanna talk about something else?"

"If you don't mind." Ruby agreed quickly, giving the area around her a quick check. Satisfied, she moved on. "There is something I've been wondering about though."

"Shoot." the blond prompted with a small wave.

"I know this is a little thing, but its been bugging me. When we were on Earth, the briefing?" she checked, eliciting a pair of nods. "I get why you guys were there, and I get why Hammond was there." she pursed her lips in thought.

"Why was SG-1 there too?" Pyrrha guessed, to which Ruby nodded to.

"Yeah. I figured they were pretty important, but I guess I wanna know why." she finished.

"Right, um..." Jaune quieted down when a pedestrian walked past the trio. Once the unknown person was out of earshot he clapped his hands together, frowning in thought. "Huh, I'm not really sure how to answer that."

When Ruby raised an eyebrow at him, Pyrrha softly took a breath. "Well, on paper they're just the team designated one. Their job is mainly exploration and diplomacy, but they'll do other things as the situation demands. But..." she faltered, wrinkling her brow while she rubbed her chin.

"Its not that simple, is it?" Ruby ventured, making both of them nod.

"They have a... a thing. Not sure how to describe it. Basically, if anyone else were to try what they do, they would fail. But if SG-1 were to give it a shot, they'd succeed. Doesn't matter if its winning over some long isolated civilization, making the discovery of a lifetime, or beating a System Lord head on, if its impossible, they can pull it off." Jaune had a faraway look in his eye while he told her. Ruby noted the admiration in his voice, even as he gestured randomly while talking.

"If you want to take the spiritual route, I'd say they were marked by destiny." Pyrrha offered, far more composed than her partner.

Ruby nodded thoughtfully. "What all have SG-1 done? You talk like they're legends."

"They would be if the Stargate program was public knowledge." Jaune began, quickly glancing around before continuing. "I mean, how many people can claim they've killed false gods, rescued entire civilizations, saved their own home world six or seven times now, just as the start?" he asked rhetorically. Ruby noticed the gleam in his eye when he was talking, and knew what it meant.

"Its hard to believe, but its all true." Pyrrha said with a shrug, a hint of a frown on her features.

"You really look up to them." Ruby noted, making him nod. The redhead did too after a moment.

"It's easy to do. What helps is there's evidence of their deeds at the SGC, if we had more time I would've shown you." she finished with an apologetic shrug.

"That's why SG-1 was there too. Hammond figured this was going to be a special event, so he brought the best along." Jaune concluded brightly.

Ruby pondered the information, wondering what it all meant. She had trouble believing the strange yet friendly enough people in the briefing room were supposedly so great, but what reason did either of them have to lie? In the end she shook her head, deciding it was good enough.

It took her a second to notice Jaune stopped, making her quickly backs track to where he stood. Following his bemused gaze, she discovered what made him stop.

"This place is still here?" he asked softly, planting a hand on his hip. The sign he drew Ruby's gaze to made her understand in full.

"From Dust Till Dawn. I would've thought this place got closed down years ago with Dust prices these days." Pyrrha commented, crossing her arms.

"I dunno how the old guy stays in business, but he does. The prices here aren't all that bad though." Ruby offered, feeling old memories bob to the surface of her thoughts.

Jaune pointed a finger at the unassuming store, as he gave her a sideways look. "Isn't this the shop that one street thug tried robbing back in the day? I remember you telling me about it a long time ago, this was the place which got Ozpin to invite you to Beacon. Ah, what was the guy's name?" he wrinkled his brow, frowning in thought. Before she could answer it for him, he snapped his fingers. "Torchwick. Something Torchwick, that was it, I'm sure of it."

"Roman I believe." Pyrrha added, the weak smile on her face fading when she saw Ruby's expression.

The red toned girl cleared her throat. "Roman Torchwick died eight months ago. During the battle."

Jaune's smile evaporated too. "Oh. Um..." he stopped to cough into his hand.

"It's fine. Um, the ammo shops a little further this way." Ruby jabbed a thumb over her shoulder.

Pyrrha nodded and rejoined her in walking, but Jaune stopped a few steps later, wincing while he sucked in a breath.

"Actually..." he cleared his throat when the girls gave him a strange look.

"What's the matter?" the redhead asked with concern, turning around fully.

Jaune pointed at the shop a couple meters away from him, exhaling carefully. "You mind waiting out here for a few minutes? My coffee is back to bite me."

Ruby blinked, her concern vanishing.

"Oh, sure, go ahead." she said, waving him on.

He gave them a thumbs up and darted to the door, making the chime above it ring. When she became aware of being in the middle of the sidewalk, Ruby stepped to the storefront, Pyrrha taking a spot beside her. Tapping her foot, the red huntress tried her best to keep herself in check. Seeing the redhead check her scroll prompted her to do the same; she saw an invite from Valentine and a random advertisement, but no other notifications.

"Hey, Pyrrha?" she said, catching the older girl's attention. "There's something else I wanna talk to you about."

"Sure, what is it?" she replied, closing her scroll and crossing her arms.

Mustering her nerves, Ruby pressed forward. "I've been meaning to ask you this, I just haven't had the chance yet." she paused to take a breath, making the redhead give her a concerned look. "What're you guys gonna do now?"

"Do now? What do you mean?" Pyrrha asked in confusion, frowning.

"I mean, you're home now. So, it means you don't have to do the SGC stuff anymore." Ruby explained slowly, swinging her head around to check for eavesdroppers. There were a few people on the same sidewalk, but no one close.

"Oh." Pyrrha turned away, her gaze downcast. She idly rubbed the space on her elbows while she thought of how to answer the question, as Ruby waited with a curious look.

"I... I guess I don't know." she said at last, glancing towards the sky. When Pyrrha noticed Ruby raising an eyebrow at her, she sighed. "I haven't really thought about it. With everything going on, I've been playing it day by day."

Ruby nodded, trying to send a smile her way. "Well, you don't have to go off and fight goold anymore. There's a good thing."

"Yeah..." Pyrrha answered distantly, causing her to frown. "I'll admit there's parts of the job I could do without. But there's good things too."

"Like what?" Ruby asked, spotting someone walking towards them a short distance away. A discreet tilt of her head made the redhead nod in understanding.

"As rough as it can get, there's always that feeling I'm making a difference every time I step through the ring. Even if its just something like scouting out this random planet, I'm doing something for the betterment of an entire world, maybe for a lot of worlds." she tilted her head back with a small smile. "You haven't felt true joy until you've seen a crowd of cheering people tasting freedom for the first time in uncountable generations. People who've been slaves for their entire recorded history, no longer being oppressed by an alien overlord. There's nothing quite like the feeling. Stuff like that makes everything I go through worth it."

Ruby nodded along as she spoke, peering at the sky too. "I guess it would be."

Noticing the pedestrian making a beeline towards the shop, she backed up a few steps at the same time as Pyrrha. As the hooded figure passed by them, Ruby cleared her throat. "So, what do you wanna do after you pick up ammo?"

"Anything you want, I don't mind. I was going to ask Jaune if there was anything in particular he'd like to do." Pyrrha answered with a shrug.

"You sure?" she asked her, hearing the door chime.

"I'm sure. Don't take this the wrong way, but I think we're going to be playing Q and A for most of the day." the redhead said with a bemused smile. Ruby rolled her eyes, not trying to deny it. "I understand though. I do feel bad that we're talking your ear off though."

"It's okay." Ruby replied, shrugging. "I mean, lets face it. You guys have the more interesting stories."

"Well, I wouldn't say more interesting." Pyrrha said, idly running a hair through her hair.

"Excuse me."

Ruby turned her head, all her cheer vanishing. Distantly aware of Pyrrha looking too, she paused to stare at the female voice which spoke to them.

"Um, yes?" she acknowledged carefully, letting her eyes roam over the figure.

The speaker was a woman, clad in dark clothes which looked like they had seen better days. She saw a large number of pockets all over the outfit, appearing to be stitched on seemingly at random. A thick dark cowl covered much of her body, while the hood obscured most of her face. What drew Ruby's gaze was the weapon slung over her back, a bow and quiver full of arrows. She knew of only one type of person who would go out like this.

"You're a huntress." she said amazedly, a special feeling rippling through her entire body.

The woman nodded once. "Correct. May I have a moment of your time?" she asked neutrally, her voice devoid of any sort of inflection.

Clearing her throat first, Pyrrha composed herself before faced the woman. "Can I ask what this is about?"

"I overheard part of your conversation." Ruby winced in self reproach. "By any chance, did you mention the name Jaune?"

"If I did?" Pyrrha asked coolly, narrowing her eyes a minute degree. Her body language was relaxed, but Ruby saw hints of her preparing to draw a weapon.

In response the woman lifted her glove clad hands to touch her hood, easily pulling it back to expose herself. Ruby's breath caught when she saw ragged blonde hair spilling out, the uneven clumps doing nothing to hide the very familiar sheen. The woman shook her head for a moment before focusing her gaze upon them.

Ruby saw immediately she was pretty, although there was no sign of makeup. At a glance she appeared to be in her mid twenties, her fair skin showing cues of living in the woods. But what grabbed her attention was her eyes: cold and piercing, yet possessing a shade of blue she recognized at once.

"Who... who are you?" she got out, roaming her eyes over the huntress.

"My name is Eliane. To repeat myself, did you say that name?" she replied, never losing the disciplined calm.

The shop's door chiming once again broke the tense atmosphere, drawing the three women's attentions away. Walking out, Jaune's blissful ignorance was shattered when he saw the gathering outside. "Um, what's going..."

He trailed off when his eyes landed on the woman. Eliane turned to slowly approach him, stopping an arms length away to carefully look at the young man. For a moment she lifted her hand to chest level, as if she was afraid to touch him directly.

Ruby exchanged a look with Pyrrha, who appeared indecisive. She didn't know who this woman was either, but Jaune wasn't reacting with hostility. He looked more dumbstruck than anything, gulping nervously yet doing nothing to stop her.

Without warning she caught him in a powerful hug. Ruby was reaching for Crescent Rose at once, while Pyrrha already had her hand wrapped around Miló. The only thing which stopped them was Jaune quickly holding up a splayed hand, flashing an anxious expression. Blinking in utter confusion, Ruby could only watch as he hesitantly wrapped his own arms around Eliane.

No one spoke for a minute, Ruby desperately wondering what was going on. When the woman let go at long last, she stayed right by him for a moment. The red toned girl was just close enough to hear her soft voice, as she murmured, "Its you, its really _you_."

Pyrrha coughed loudly, finally breaking the two apart. Eliane turned around, leveling her gaze upon her for interrupting them. Jaune on the other hand was red faced, plainly nervous while he shuffled his weight from one foot to the other.

"Jaune, who is this?" the redhead questioned severely, switching her green eyes from one to the other.

He took a deep breath, gathering his resolve. "Pyrrha, Ruby, this is Eliane." pausing to run a hand down his face, Jaune all but mumbled the next part. "My sister."

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 **A/N: Hurray for poorly thought out plot twists.**

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An electric double chirp caught Ruby's attention, breaking the numb block from his seemingly calm introduction. She didn't know what it was, but the look on Pyrrha's and Jaune's expressions told her her it wasn't good; if it made the blood drain from both of their faces, it was reason enough for her to worry. Jaune dug into his hoodie's pockets, frantically pawing as Eliane gave him a strange look. It only got worse when he yanked his hand out, gripping his prize: the blocky radio.

"What is that?" the woman questioned curiously, while Pyrrha briefly raised a brow at him. If she didn't know any better she could have seen a faint sheen of color glow at the woman's irises.

"Wait, you grabbed yours? Why?" she asked in befuddlement.

Before he could respond the tiny machine chirped again, a very insistent sounding noise. Though she felt completely out of her depth, Ruby decided to step in. "What's going on?"

Jaune's features were nearly white, comprehension dawning on Pyrrha at the same time. When he spoke again, his voice was hoarse.

"They're here."


	15. Awkward Meetings

"Oh crap, oh crap, _oh crap_..." Jaune tilted his head back, gripping his face as he shifted his weight. Both his hands massaged the flesh underneath, rubbing in a vain hope of changing the situation. " _Why now?_ " he all but hissed.

"What's wrong?" Eliane questioned sternly, her posture shifting into an evident combat stance. One of her hands felt along the tip of the bow on her back, fingers ghosting over the metal.

The young man inhaled deeply, sucking in breath from between his palms. "Some people have a terrible sense of timing." went Jaune's muffled answer, from him squeezing his face.

The blonde woman's gaze flickered, showing confusion. "I don't understand."

Dropping his hands, Jaune briefly hunched over before facing her. He brought his hands together in front of himself, taking a deep breath. "Ellie, I missed you. I'm sorry for not getting in touch sooner, but a lots been going on." he spoke, calm yet strained. Though his features were neutral, it wasn't difficult to see how hesitant he was to go on.

"A lot going on?" Eliane repeated, face wrinkling as a glare overtook her. "You were missing Jaune, everyone thought you were dead. Mother, father, all of us, we held a funeral for you." she snapped.

"Just listen for a second." he continued anyway, fighting back a grimace.

"I went looking for you Jaune, after they called off the search. Now you're just, _here_. Like nothing happened." the blonde's voice had turned dangerously cold, her hands curling into fists.

"I'm sorry." Jaune gripped the woman's shoulder, causing her to flinch. Eliane was bristling at the contact, but she stopped herself from pushing his hand off. "I'm really sorry. I can't tell where I've been, not this second." he added quickly, halting her furrowed brow. "I promise though, I _will_ explain everything. Okay?"

Eliane narrowed her gaze. "You don't have a good record of keeping your promises." she stated, making him flex his free hand while he exhaled.

"That was then. Now, just give me five minutes. Then we'll sit down and have a nice long chat." he vowed, forcing a weak smile.

"Five minutes." she repeated, examining him carefully.

"You can keep track if you want to. In the meantime." he nodded to the two girls, who had been mutedly standing by while they watched the exchange. "My friends here will keep you company." he said, gently turning her to face them.

After glancing at her brother for withdrawing his hand, Eliane locked on to a now guarded Pyrrha. Clearing her throat, the redhead composed herself and stepped forward to hold out a hand. Eliane didn't return the gesture. "Hello Eliane. I'm-"

"Pyrrha Nikos." the blonde interrupted, her voice suddenly devoid of emotion. This time there was no mistaking it; her irises were faintly glowing. "Two time champion of Sanctum Academy. Transferred to Beacon shortly after winning last Academy tournament. Presumed deceased approximately three years ago." she recited the information emptily, like a robot. The red haired girl was still caught off balance, though she recovered quickly.

"That's right." she agreed hesitantly, frowning at the blonde as she withdrew her hand.

"Former mascot of Pumpkin Pete's cereal brand." Eliane added as an afterthought, the glow in her eyes fading.

Pyrrha took in a breath, stopping herself from grinding her teeth together. "Yes, thank you for reminding me of that." she said lowly. She tilted to the side to level a dry look at Jaune, who had just stepped into the alley. He offered an apologetic glance before darting out of sight.

Turning her head, Eliane's gaze landed on Ruby. The red huntress braced herself, feeling unwelcome trepidation; on the one hand, this was Jaune's sister, ergo an automatic friend of hers. On the other, besides a noticeable facial resemblance the two had virtually nothing in common. Before she spoke the woman's eyes glowed for a moment, likely giving her the same treatment as Pyrrha.

"You have silver eyes." she noted.

Needing a quick breath, Ruby wasn't sure whether to be put off or relieved at the response. "I'm Ruby Rose, I'm a student at Beacon. And, um, your brother's friend." she answered, trying an open smile.

What she hoped for was a 'are you really?' followed by Eliane starting to unthaw her frigid attitude. Instead she nodded once in acknowledgment. "How long have you known Jaune?"

"Since, eh, I started at Beacon. I met him on the airship on the way in." Ruby kept up the friendly act anyway, suspecting it was a lost cause but unwilling to give in yet. A part of her hope the answer would do the trick.

Eliane lacked inflection as she blandly responded with, "Do you know where he's been in the interim?"

"Um, yeah, but I can't tell you. Not here." she said quickly, holding up her flattened hands to stop her protest. Ruby hoped she wouldn't have to defend herself, fearful of hurting her friend's sister. At the same time however, Ruby was more fearful of her friend's sister hurting her.

When Pyrrha clapped her hands together, Ruby felt a sense of guilty relief at Eliane taking her attention away. "Okay, how about we get out from the middle of the street." she suggested, inserting false cheer into her voice. When she tried to put a hand on her arm, Elaine visibly bristled, cold hostility starting to radiate off her. Drawing back, Pyrrha needed a second to rethink her approach. "Um, just out of the way is fine."

Hovering right by them, Ruby felt uncomfortable. She walked right beside the women as Pyrrha gently guided Eliane to the facing of the Dust shop, wanting to help but seeing no way how. Even talking wasn't an option, since the blonde huntress was effectively ignoring her.

"You were missing too. Were you with Jaune this whole time?" Eliane began, stopping at the side of the building to stare at Pyrrha. The redhead took a breath, apparently trying to loosen up.

"Yeah. Now listen, I get it. You're confused and upset. But please, just wait a few minutes. Then we'll..." she paused to think over her plan, flexing her fingers. "We'll take you to Beacon, then sit down to explain everything. Okay?" she finished, gathering a hopeful smile.

"Very well." Eliane agreed coolly, crossing her arms. Though she looked away, the huntress only turned her head far enough to avoid directly staring, keeping the younger woman in her vision.

After a moment of silence, Ruby cleared her throat to catch both their attentions. "I'll... check on Jaune real quick." she said, jabbing a thumb to the alley.

"I'll come with you." Eliane spoke, starting to follow her until Pyrrha hurriedly got in her way.

"That's not a good idea, believe me. Would you please just wait for a minute?" she stepped sideways to intercept the blonde, holding firm under the hard look she was receiving.

Ruby took the chance to flee, mentally promising to drag Jaune back if he were finished with his task. As she entered the alley, she yanked out her scroll to send a quick message to Professor Goodwitch; with her current information, she only typed ' _Earthers are here, will call with more info soon_ ' and sent it. That done, she strode further in.

She heard Jaune before she saw him, identifying the clipped tone at once. Pushing her unease aside, she rounded a corner into the relatively clean back alley, coming face to face with him. The blond nearly jumped when he saw her, his whole body flinching before he realized who it was. Ruby shrugged regretfully, noticing how he had the radio clutched in one hand.

"Sorry. So, how's it coming along?" she asked, shrugging to loosen up.

Jaune sighed before running a hand through his hair. "They still haven't answered me." he muttered. When he brought the device back to chest level he paused, a grimace flickering over him. "Um, you should go wait back out front. This is, well, SGC stuff."

"I can handle it." she replied brightly, grabbing her hands behind her back as she smiled.

"Well, but it's..." he looked away, starting to go for his neck before stopping.

"Its okay. I'll be quiet." Ruby added as an afterthought.

He sighed. "Alright, just... I know this makes you uncomfortable." he said apologetically, adjusting his footing.

"Its fine now. I promise." she pressed on, gesturing at the blocky radio.

Exhaling, Jaune nodded and lifted the device to his face. Clicking something, he spoke in the same businesslike tone as back on Earth. "This is Sierra Golf Two-Five calling Papa Actual, respond, over."

Clicking it off, he faced Ruby again in preparation of more explaining. The red toned girl felt a flash of pride when she said, "Code names, I get it." and got him to hurriedly clear his throat.

"Yeah, never know who might be listening." he told her lamely, groaning as he shifted his weight.

"Just to make sure though, Papa Actual means the _Prometheus_ right?" she checked with a small frown, which he answered with a nod. Ruby let out a quiet "yes!" in victory, pumping a fist in celebration of her deduction skills.

"Remind me later, I'll fill you on what it all means." he said distractedly, bringing the radio back up. Her task done, Ruby turned to walk back out front. "Repeat, this is Sierra Golf Two-Five, come in Papa Actual, respond-"

" _This is Papa Actual, we read you loud and clear Sierra Golf._ "

Ruby stopped mid step, whirling back around to face him and the no nonsense female voice from the radio. Jaune jerked the radio away from his head, surprise crossing him for a second while he cleared his throat. Sparing a quick look at her anxiously excited form, he took a breath before bringing the radio closer again. "Check, authorization code Delta one five zero, respond?"

" _Authorization approved, response code Delta six four nine._ "

Jaune sighed in relief, giving Ruby an encouraging look before proceeding. "Copy Papa Actual. Welcome to Remnant."

" _Thanks for the greet Two-Five, nice looking planet you got here. Status?_ "

"Status nominal, team is accounted for and in good condition. We are standing by for further orders." he replied, catching Ruby giving him a thumbs up. He quickly gave her one back.

" _Roger. New directive for you Two-Five, Papa Actual callsign is Chariot Action. Acknowledge?_ "

"Copy that, Chariot it is." Jaune lowered the radio for a moment, sighing in relief while he ran a hand down his face.

Ruby didn't quite get everything he or the speaker were talking about, but she understood the gist of the conversation. Knowing things were alright nearly made her dance in place, driving her to jab a hand at him for a high five. Just as he started to clap her hand, the radio crackled once more. " _Two-Five, sensors have a bead on your position. Be advised, we're reading a life sign in your immediate vicinity. How copy?_ "

The color drained from Ruby's face as she shrunk back, worried fear coming over her. Jaune coughed nervously before clicking the radio, briefly flustered. "Roger Chariot. Subject is cleared for information, no risk of a security leak. Repeat, no risk. Over."

" _...Copy._ "

Clearing her throat once he finished, Ruby was close to cringing. "I didn't get you in trouble, did I?"

"What? No, nonono." Jaune shook his head, holding his hands out to her. "I swear, its okay."

"You sure?" she asked carefully, forcing herself to hold still.

"Yeah, its fine. Don't worry." he smiled reassuringly, which seemed to help calm her down.

"Okay." Ruby agreed hesitantly, nodding as she breathed deeply. "So, what happens now?"

"Well..." he tipped his head back, sighing. "Now, I'll get them to contact me again in an hour, we'll go to Ozpin for coordinating stuff, and then we'll have to find a good out of the way landing zone." When Jaune realized it, he glanced to her again and winced. "Sorry, but it looks like we're done for the day."

"Its all good." Ruby nodded, suppressing the flash of disappointment. "We still have tomorrow. Although..." she chuckled nervously, looking away as she started to wring her hands. "I don't think your sister is going to like it."

"I know." he sighed, rubbing his brow while glancing around the alley.

" _Two-Five, status?_ "

Jaune yanked the radio back up, immediately snapping to attention. Ruby picked up too; the speaker was different, a deeper masculine voice she didn't recognize.

"Status nominal Chariot. Awaiting further orders, over." he spoke into the device, a frown crossing him. When he saw Ruby mouthing 'who's that?' he shrugged in response.

" _Understood. Hold your position Two-Five, prepare for matter transmission._ "

Jaune blinked once, comprehension flickering over his face. Then he jerked the radio closer, alarmed when he spoke. "Say again Chariot? Did not catch that."

" _Sensors locked. Standby for beaming._ "

The arm holding the device dropped to his side, the young man all but slumping as quiet fear overtook him.

"Oh no." he muttered, briefly holding a look of terror.

"What's the matter?" Ruby demanded worriedly, bringing her hands up to help.

Jaune quickly cleared his throat as he stood up straight, unable to shake the concealed alarm. Turning to face her, he took a breath. "Ruby, I promise I'll be fine, just don't freak-"

There was a flash of light, making the red toned girl wince. Briefly rubbing her eyes, she looked back to the blond when he fell silent. She blinked, turning her head from side to side.

"Um. Jaune?" she hesitantly called out, hearing no answer in the narrow alley. Nervously approaching where he was last, she swiped a hand in the space he occupied a moment ago. She felt only air.

Gulping, Ruby committed everything she heard and saw to memory before turning away, only just restraining herself from using her semblance. She needed to find Pyrrha; no matter how overjoyed she was to have her long lost friends back, leaving out important details, like the Earthers having the power to make people _vanish into thin air_ , wasn't something she was going to let slide.

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"-out." Jaune finished. The light in front of his eyes vanished, a wash of vertigo quickly following the event.

He needed a couple seconds to process his surroundings; his vision was adjusting for the far dimmer light, the illumination coming from electric lights rather than a real sun. He was picking up details by the second, such as the grey metal walls studded with innumerable panels and reinforced by several layers of bracing struts. A unique hum filled his ears, sourced from banks of computers and the smoothly running engines.

Most importantly, before him was a set of highly reinforced windows. Outside Jaune saw two things: a star patterned black sky, and a multicolored planet taking up half the view. The young man knew what it was already, but he felt the need to pick out details. Things like the shape of continents he learned when he was a boy, or the whitish edge of the shattered moon. All of it combined together to crystallize a singular thought.

 _Not good._

A firm cough from behind him made the young man stand up straight, exactly how he was taught years ago. Releasing a short breath, Jaune turned around with his expression blank.

"Sergeant Arc I presume?" greeted the first as he rose from his chair. Jaune snapped out a quick salute to the older man in the green jumpsuit, his eyes scanning for his name badge.

"Sir." he replied, finally discovering who the officer in front of him was.

"At ease." Colonel Lionel Pendergast commanded, making his guest's arm lower. The commander of the _Prometheus_ roamed his gaze over the Sergeant, for a moment focusing on the sword hanging off his belt.

"Sergeant, you're out of uniform." noted a second man, hands in his pockets while he strode up to him. A second salute was Jaune's greeting, which O'Neill waved off.

"My apologies sir, I wasn't expecting you for another fourteen hours." he answered neutrally while lowering his arm.

"Don't sweat it. By the way, nice threads." O'Neill complimented, appearing bemused while he planted a fist on his hip.

"It came as a surprise to us all Arc. Now." Pendergast gestured before turning to stride away.

O'Neill watched the commander for a second before turning to him. "You doing okay kid?"

"I'm fine sir." Jaune replied calmly, waiting for O'Neill to indicate he was done with him.

"Really." Instead the greying man turned to face him entirely, wearing an inquisitive expression. "You're home for the first time in years, and you don't have a single problem."

"Nothing worth bringing up sir." Jaune told him, inserting a tiny amount of coldness into his voice. O'Neill shrugged, hopefully understanding where he shouldn't tread.

"Alright. Over here then." he jabbed a thumb to the same direction Pendergast went, taking his time. With as much self control as he could muster, Jaune followed. "Just so you know, I'm not gonna bail you out of your family trouble." he added, causing the young man to miss a step.

O'Neill continued to move away at the same easy pace, not sparing a look back. A good thing, otherwise he would have caught the flash of anger on Jaune's expression.

The blonde composed himself by the time he caught up with the two Colonels, stopping in front of a desk station with the gathered personnel. While the screen showed an array of data, Jaune found himself caring more about how badly he stood out from everyone else: each of the men (and one woman) sported a green outfit of some design, from Pendergast's jumpsuit to the splotched BDUs of the two men.

Of the assembled men and woman of SG-1, they fitted his mental image almost exactly. Carter maintained the same discipline as the other officers, whereas Teal'c stood with his arms clasped behind his back. Daniel Jackson alone had his hands in his pockets, being technically exempt from the same rules as the rest. All three nodded to Jack.

"Okay." O'Neill began, glancing at him as he waved a hand around. "Arc, you know Pendergast and SG-1. Colonel Reynolds and Major Washington are here for SG-3 and SG-9 respectively. Everyone, this is Sergeant Arc." O'Neill's finished, a sharp look stopping Jaune's hand from snapping up.

"Sirs." he acknowledged instead, earning a nod from the two men he knew of by reputation.

Colonel Albert Reynolds appeared to be an unremarkable man at first glance, being a little younger than O'Neill. Jaune knew better; the Marine hadn't become the leader of SG-3 for nothing. He had to be good, otherwise his team wouldn't be the preferred backup for SG-1 whenever Hammond thought the situation might be too much for them. Reynolds stood at attention, his eyes flicking over the young man's choice of wardrobe.

Major David Washington on the other hand was a different story. Although still in this thirties, the leader of SG-9 appeared far older. No shortage of rumors followed him when he transferred to the SGC; the most persistent was a former NID affiliation, something to do with training mercenaries. Whatever the truth, Washington had the unenviable mission of establishing treaties and agreements with off world governments. Every time Jaune thought his own job was bad, all he had to do was think of SG-9 to feel relief.

"Alright, lets get down to business." O'Neill brought his hands together, turning his gaze towards Jaune. In seconds the rest of them followed suit, each of them boring their eyes into him. The blond stood up straight, hoping he didn't make a mistake.

"Sirs, our primary objective has been completed. My team and I have successfully made contact with a local leader, Headmaster Ozpin." he began, clasping his hands behind his back.

Major Washington raised an eyebrow. "A schoolteacher?"

"Yeah actually." Daniel interrupted before glancing towards O'Neill, who nodded. "Academies here are international organizations, they don't have a lot of real power but they do wield a lot of influence. Its a given a headmaster of one has a lot of connections. If you're looking for someone to talk to, you could do a lot worse." he finished with a shrug.

"Jaune Arc was previously familiar with Headmaster Ozpin. It was a pragmatic decision to contact him." Teal'c spoke as well, unmoving from his pose.

Washington inhaled through his nose. "Understood."

"We'll need to get in touch with him as soon as possible. Does he know we were on the way?" Carter inquired neutrally, directing the question towards Jaune.

"Yes ma'am. However, he isn't expecting your arrival for a while yet." he replied carefully, making her nod thoughtfully.

"Yes, about that. I admit to a mistake there." the blonde woman confessed, ignoring a snicker from O'Neill. "I based my estimate on an upgraded Goa'uld hyperdrive, not the high quality design the Asgard gave us instead. With the current specs, the _Prometheus_ could have made it here in under twelve hours if we really needed to. But Colonel Pendergast didn't want to push the ship that hard right now." she explained, gesturing towards the greying master of the ship.

"The ship just got fixed up, I'd rather not break it immediately. General Jumper warned me if I did I'd get a desk job like Ronson." Pendergast replied evenly.

"Overall, the Asgard were generous this time. In addition to the hyperdrive, we have an improved energy shield, upgraded our railguns, they even threw in transporters. As you've already seen." Carter added with a hint of regret. "The last did come with a set of programmed restrictions admittedly, which we're not supposed to alter or break."

"Probably because of the whole Perdition Rift thing, Thor was real happy about us taking care of that for 'em. Little guy never did say why though." O'Neill frowned in thought while he crossed his arms.

"For the record, we actually got here about forty five minutes ago. Doing some orbit level recon, which won't be misinterpreted at all." Daniel said the last part under his breath, getting O'Neill to narrow his brow at him.

"You'd do the same thing and you know it." he half mocked.

Teal'c halted a petty argument via a well timed interruption. "I believe we should be underway soon. Is Headmaster Ozpin aware of our arrival?"

"I can't say for certain sir. I assume my team have contacted him by now, but he is likely expecting the _Prometheus_ to find a landing zone first." Jaune answered, maintaining his calm before the Jaffa. Internally he hoped the intimidation he felt was disguised well enough.

"Very well. Colonel O'Neill, you have the most experience in these matters." Pendergast invited with a wave, getting the leader of SG-1 to step forward.

"Alright, this is how we'll do it then." O'Neill announced as he planted his hands on the station, regaining the mixed groups attention. "Daniel figures we're gonna have to stretch this out over a few days, so that's what we'll do. Pendergast?"

"I have no objections. If we get a recall order however, I'm dropping everything to run." the commander informed.

"Works for me. Today we're just gonna do some introduction stuff, swap some names and all that. Tomorrow we'll start hammering out details." he continued, glancing deliberately towards Washington.

The Major inhaled deeply. "Understood sir."

"Reynolds, you and your boys are backup if we need it. I got fifty bucks in the pot that we will." O'Neill ordered, the last part spoken with an air of cynicism.

"Yes sir." Reynolds acknowledged with a nod, hiding his thoughts on the matter.

"Game set match then. Now, where are we going?" O'Neill turned to the young Sergeant, silent throughout the briefing.

Rather than doing what he was told, Jaune cleared his throat. "Sir, there is something you have to know before we proceed any further."

"What would that be?" O'Neill questioned evenly, leveling a flat gaze upon him.

"After we gated through, my team and the visitors came under attack by a dangerous local lifeform." Jaune started, internally preparing himself.

"The Creatures of Grimm." Teal'c offered neutrally, making Pendergast, Reynolds, and Washington give him an odd look.

"Yes sir. As per General Hammond's instructions, we subsequently tested our standard issue weapons in combat conditions." he elaborated, stopping a grimace when he remembered how it went.

"Lemme guess." O'Neill began drolly, adopting a flat look. "You went on a hunting spree, and got more trophies than walls to put em on."

Inhaling, Jaune braced himself. "No sir. I personally emptied my P90's magazine into a basic type, at a range of perhaps ten meters. It failed to kill the creature."

O'Neill's expression was blank. "Failed."

"Correct sir. I made the Grimm angry, but my weapon caused no real harm to it." he finished, tensing up.

Glancing to the others, the Colonel flicked a hand in his direction. "Any of you believing this guy?"

"Well, do you have eyewitnesses to confirm this?" Carter ventured diplomatically, worry on her features. Along with the rest of the men now that he looked.

Jaune nodded. "I do ma'am. If you want I can arrange for a test under controlled conditions. But the gist is our primary firearms are ineffective at best. The exception was the AT-4, for obvious reasons."

"Hm, that's troubling." Reynolds commented, rubbing his chin. Washington and Teal'c nodded in agreement.

"If you say so kid." O'Neill shrugged, appearing to be the only one who didn't believe him. "Anyway, lets get back on track. Directions kid?"

"Yes sir." After glancing at Pendergast, Jaune reached over the display screen. Carter played with the controls for a moment, bringing up an aerial shot of a nearly cloudless city. It took him a moment to realize it was Vale.

"Over here ma'am." he directed respectfully, guiding the controls towards the outlying area of the city.

When the grainy display moved over the recognizable shape of Beacon, Reynolds whistled. "Looks like a castle."

"It does actually." Daniel agreed, hunching over the display to look closer.

"I find it to be a poorly designed fortress." Teal'c critiqued. "But it must have prowess. Wreckage surrounds the Academy."

Jaune quickly cleared his throat. "Sirs, I discovered approximately eight months ago Beacon Academy came under attack. It was repelled, but at a severe cost."

"Ouch." O'Neill winced in sympathy. "I'm gonna guess it was bad?"

"Yes sir. Now, here..." Jaune moved on rather than dwell, not wishing to go into detail yet. When he pointed at the topmost tower, the aerial shot was overlaid by a line covered image. The new view showed internal details of the tower, with numerous glowing dots visible all throughout the Academy. Idly he wondered if anyone down there could tell they were being scanned from orbit.

"Top of the tower." he directed, making Carter zoom in a bit further. When the screen showed an open room with a single life sign inside, he tapped on the screen once. "This is the Headmaster's office sirs." he explained, backing up a step. He felt Crocea Mors jostle on something, but the lack of a yelp told him it wasn't someone important.

"A king in his ivory tower." Daniel mumbled to himself, doing a decent job of hiding how impressed he was.

"Great." O'Neill clapped, a devilish smile coming over him. "Its time to go-" Daniel and Pendergast simultaneously cleared their throat, halting him in his tracks. "What? I wasn't going to say anything else." he defended testily, jerking his arms in an indignant wave.

"You were about to compare us to the away team of the Enterprise." Teal'c accused flatly, getting everyone to quietly groan.

"No I wasn't."

"Yes you were." Daniel rebutted, crossing his arms. Carter and Reynolds coughed.

"...Oh for crying out loud, how could I not?" O'Neill admitted. "Look around, when have we ever been more like Star Trek?"

Carter raised an eyebrow. "Sir, I don't see the parallels here."

"Alright, lemme explain. You're Scott, the engineering genius." he pointed to her, then to Teal'c. "You're Spock, all logical and stuff." Ignoring an adjustment of his brow, he moved on to Daniel. "And you're McCoy, being the snarky doctor." to finish he glanced to Jaune. "Sorry kid, this means you're a redshirt."

"Which implies you are Captain Kirk." Teal'c concluded. His brow shifted a few degrees, showing what he thought of the assessment.

O'Neill wore a smirk as he waved his arms out. "Hey, if the shoe fits."

"Quite the deduction Colonel." Pendergast said flatly, turning to the rest of the team. "Major Carter, Dr. Jackson, Teal'c. If Colonel O'Neill mentions the Enterprise or claims to be the master of this ship, you have my permission to shoot him."

"With Zats sir?" Carter checked, frowning while she ignored O'Neill's mutterings about them being ingrates.

"If you must. Good luck SG-1." the greying man backed away, turning to gesture at an airman.

Before the airman could begin, Teal'c spoke. "I propose Jaune Arc be sent down first."

Up until that point, Jaune had been content with staying silent, present yet ignored. He knew better than to intrude on a briefing; he said his piece, watched his warning get disregarded by the one man who should have taken it seriously, and had pointed Earth's best towards the leader of Beacon. He stayed quiet, if sputtering out a nervous cough counted for silence. Especially once the rest of the assembled officers glanced at him questionably.

"May I ask why?" Pendergast inquired with a frown.

"If we were to appear out of the ether, Headmaster Ozpin could interpret it as a threat. I would assume one does not become headmaster of an Academy without acquiring a great deal of experience in dealing with threats." Teal'c explained evenly.

"Oh..." Daniel grimaced as he rubbed his chin. "I didn't consider that. You think we should pop in somewhere else, then call him to visit?" he asked, swinging his head around for a reply.

"Hence sending Jaune Arc first. We will follow you in a moment." the Jaffa finished with a cordial nod towards the blond.

O'Neill tipped his head. "Good thinking T. Let's do it."

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An insistent beep came from Ozpin's desk. Seated in his chair, the wizened master of Beacon regarded the alert for a moment. Out of reflex he sipped his coffee.

"I have to end this call, there's another matter which needs my attention. Yes, two days. Ironwood should arrive sometime tomorrow, I know. Glynda voiced similar concerns. Would you like for me to inform your nieces? Very well. Safe travels." Ozpin flicked his finger across the pocket sized scroll, terminating the call before he set the small device on the desk. Then he brushed across the glowing display, connecting him to Goodwitch.

" _Headmaster, are you busy right now?_ " his often overworked assistant questioned rapidly.

"Not anymore. Is something the matter?" he replied, layering concern into his tone.

" _I just received a message from Miss Rose. She claims the Earthers are here._ " Glynda told him urgently, her controlled panic getting him to set his coffee down.

"Very well. Contact Team JNPR, get them here as soon as possible." Ozpin ordered calmly, his hand bringing up the most up to date map of Vale he possessed. He had spent much of the previous night going over all the information available to him, picking out locations removed from the main populace. What he hoped was for the Earthers to come down via a gunship equivalent, saving the trouble of finding a place to park their ship. If they didn't use that method, then his options were unusually limited.

" _Right away._ " Glynda replied, ending the call from her end. Ozpin nodded, though she couldn't see him. While he poured over his map, he reached to grab his cup again.

A flash of bright light from the periphery of his vision put a stop to the action. Freezing in place, Ozpin creaked his head up several degrees. What he saw accomplished something most thought impossible: he was caught off guard.

"Headmaster." Jaune Arc greeted with his hands clasped behind his back, looking deeply uncomfortable. He stood ramrod straight, trying to get his expression under control.

"Mister Arc." Ozpin acknowledged after a moment, frowning with one of his eyebrows raised.

Jaune brought a fist up to clear his throat. "If you haven't been told already, the Tau'ri are here."

"...I see." Ozpin nodded, refraining from dropping his frown. In spite of the important message, the headmaster had another matter on his mind. "Mister Arc, how did you get into my office?"

There was a flash of white light, appearing a couple meters away from Jaune. It only lasted for a second, dissipating as fast as it appeared. Ignoring the spots in his eyes, Ozpin refocused his attention. He noted immediately the new intruders.

On the end of the short row, a man in fatigues and an open jacket whistled, crossing his arms while he looked over the spacious office. "Nice place." he said admirably, his back to the headmaster. The glasses wearing man beside him cleared his throat, making the greying arrival realize what happened. Quickly righting himself, the man muttered, "Very funny guys."

Stepping forward, the lone blonde woman of the new arrivals nodded respectfully. "Greetings."

"Greetings." Ozpin replied after a moment, once he managed to get past his surprise. "I am Ozpin, the headmaster of this Academy. I'll assume you're the representatives from Earth?"

The first man took a step forward, wearing a friendly smile as he appeared completely at ease. "Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force, at your service. This is SG-1." he paused to wave at the newcomers. "Doctor Daniel Jackson, Teal'c, and Major Samantha Carter. It's nice to meet you."

Ozpin gripped his cane, grunting as he pushed himself to his feet. He saw the unease on the newcomers (with the sole exception of the man with the emblem on his forehead), but he stayed resolute in his choice. When the headmaster was on his feet, he extended an open hand towards the soldier. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well. Welcome to Beacon Academy."

O'Neill took the offered hand, giving it a hearty shake before releasing. The silent offer to the others was declined, so Ozpin lowered himself back into his chair. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you get here?"

"Right, sorry if we frightened you. We call it beaming, its a form of remote matter transportation technology using many of the same principles as the Stargates." Carter explained quickly.

In a second Ozpin saw a dozen applications for such a machine. The very fact it wasn't a semblance meant many of his potential options were not viable; they used it to make themselves appear in his office from the stars, how could he defend himself from being abducted? How could anyone? But for now, he had no choice but to play the role of the friendly headmaster.

"Now that the introductions are out of the way, we should get down to business." he suggested.

"Indeed." rumbled the dark skinned man, Teal'c. Ozpin reflected on the odd name as he clasped his hands in front of him, noting how Jaune seemed to be trying to slip through the floor.

"I was informed of the basics of what to expect. However, I was under the impression you were going to arrive much later." he began, causing the woman to cough.

"That was a mistake on our part. Our ship, the Prometheus, was recently refitted with a more advanced drive than I thought. The estimate I gave to Arc was based on the wrong data." Carter explained.

"I see. Alright then." Ozpin leaned forward, for once refraining from grabbing his coffee. "It is my understanding that your people are travelers, seeking new technologies and resources in order to help defend yourselves from an aggressive alien empire."

"Yes, that's the short version." the glasses man, Doctor Jackson, spoke up. Though he was clad in the same uniform as the others, he didn't carry himself like they did. "If possible, we'd like to set up trade with your world, to benefit the entire planet."

"A noble goal. But I must caution you, I don't speak for all the people of this world. While I do approve of what you are proposing, not everyone will. Moreover, I am not willing to make any binding agreements without consulting anyone else." the headmaster warned, tenting his fingers.

"That's fine, I'd look at you funny if you did." O'Neill shrugged off, stuffing his hands in his pockets. For a moment Ozpin mentally contrasted this man to Ironwood.

"So, that's why we're here." Jackson finished with a quiet clap, appearing hopeful.

"Very well. Before we continue, can I offer any of you any refreshments?" Ozpin offered.

His door slid open, catching everyone's attentions. Glynda strolled into the office, making it a half dozen paces before she noticed the arrivals. Upon seeing her freeze in utter confusion, Opin cleared his throat. "Professor Goodwitch, nice of you to join us. May I introduce SG-1, the representatives from Earth."

Gulping down a lump, Glynda hesitantly nodded. O'Neill gave her a short wave, smiling as he did for her superior. "Hiya."

"SG-1, this is professor Goodwitch. I understand you'll wish to keep your presence here a secret for now, but she is my most trusted confidant. You don't need to fear exposure from her." Ozpin explained, gesturing for her to come closer.

"Greetings." Teal'c nodded respectfully towards her, though he was otherwise unmoving.

"Now." Ozpin spoke once Glynda had made it to his desk, largely recovered for the moment. "For now, let us discuss what it is we have to offer each other."

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In orbit, an airman monitoring the new subspace transmitter picked up when the display beeped. He obediently signaled for Colonel Pendergast to come closer, moving out of the way to avoid glancing at the 'officers only' stamp on his screen.

Pendergast opened the downloaded package, letting out a quiet breath when he saw it wasn't a recall order. Knowing Earth was still safe put him at ease, a little something to relieve his overall anxiety for this mission. Scanning over the information, he skimmed the obligatory congratulations and the usual status updates. But an attached document caught his attention: the preliminary results of two blood tests the Cheyenne Mountain medical personnel did yesterday.

The words 'retroviral scarring matches previous subjects' made him worry. And made him order for an immediate reply to the SGC.

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 **A/N: Yep, the plot thickens. You guys better hope I have a plan, otherwise this will be worse than a pit of yarn balls. I sense a lot of you are going to be mad at me for what happened in this chapter, in which case you're probably justified.**

 **Usual thanks to KisaragiKei. When you read this part, go to his profle and check out his stories, Arrows are Dragonsbane is a very good read in my opinion.**


	16. This could've gone better

**A/N: Funny story, my tablet died on me while I was writing this, screen stopped responding and whatnot. All my stuff was gone in a flash; my music, my pictures, my saved fics, everything. Fortunately there was an early draft of this chapter I sent to a friend for feedback a few days earlier, so I didn't restart from scratch. Only mostly.**

 **Meh: Dude, make a profile. That way I can respond to you sooner, you can see me verbally flagellate myself, and I can learn how to fix this story.**

 **Guest: Same thing. Now, you and I know Ozpin is this powerful. Daniel however doesn't have the fourth wall to tell him this, so he has to make do with the testimonies of four lost and probably frightened teenagers. Needless to say, even he has his limits.**

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 _Hours later_..

A flash of light, and once again four figures were deposited on the bridge. Outside the window, the world known as Remnant peacefully turned, the many inhabitants below never suspecting the _Prometheus_ blissfully floating in the skies. It was a view which caught the lead man's attention, letting him experience the same sense of abject wonder he felt whenever he traveled on the interstellar express. It was a feeling he never became tired of, no matter how bad his job got. Regretfully O'Neill had to sigh, muffling a grumble while he resisted the urge to sightsee.

Shifting away, the leader of SG-1 saw something which stopped him in place, to utter a concise, "Huh."

When Teal'c, Carter, and Daniel turned as well, they discovered Pendergast standing a couple meters away with his hands behind his back, glaring at the team.

"SG-1." the man's voice was chilled. "Welcome back."

"Is something wrong sir?" Carter inquired carefully, standing at attention. O'Neill shoved his hands in his pockets, raising his brow.

"What happened?" Daniel decided to ask, briefly checking for anything amiss. He exchanged looks with Teal'c, noting a faint hint of puzzlement on the dark skinned man's face.

"Only a matter of grave importance. As you are aware of, I am the commander of this vessel. Anything that happens here which can put the ship in jeopardy is my concern." Pendergast explained tightly.

"Then what is the problem?" Teal'c rumbled neutrally, matching his pose with concealed curiosity.

"While you were on the ground, Stargate Command sent a message via the subspace transmitter. Apparently the medical staff at Cheyenne mountain confirmed two visitors from this planet were infected with a retrovirus pathogen." His eyes narrowed. "I can assume both Sergeant Arc and yourselves are now contaminated, which by extension now includes an unknown but likely vast number of the personnel aboard."

"Oh." O'Neill hummed, his tension breaking. "I thought you were mad about the jello. I didn't take the last of it this time." he added quickly, swiping a hand in front of himself.

"You're not in the least bit concerned about a viral outbreak?" Pendergast questioned coldly, a hostile stare leveled on his counterpart.

O'Neill was unperturbed when he flopped his head to Carter, giving a lackluster wave of his arm for her to take over. The blonde was up to the task, standing tall under his attention. "Sir, may I see the message?"

When he gestured to the requisite terminal, she marched at his speed. Daniel elected to join them, to offer any expertise either could need. Meanwhile O'Neill and Teal'c remained where they were, the former starting to inch away before the Jaffa settled his unflinching gaze upon him.

"We must still give our account of the mission." he reminded.

The human groaned. "Yeah, that's gonna be fun."

Carter skimmed the document, as Pendergast and Daniel waited with vastly different levels of patience. When she was finished, she turned around with a mildly pleased expression. "That was an interesting discovery. Unfortunately the finding doesn't add any new information, we'll need a larger sample pool to find out variances-"

"Carter." O'Neill reminded loudly from where he was, halting the woman mid speech.

"Translation please?" Pendergast questioned impatiently.

Mustering herself, Carter explained. "As far as we can tell sir, the population of this world was infected by a retrovirus centuries, possibly millennia ago. The original four subjects that Doctor." she stopped to clear her throat, something unidentifiable flashing over both her and Daniel. "That Doctor Fraiser examined several years ago all shared the same foreign DNA in their genome. I suspected back then this pathogen was unleashed on a wide scale, since the nearest relative any of those four shared was easily twelve generations ago, if not more."

"Whatever happened, it was so long ago none of them could remember a time before it. They were actually surprised when they found out we weren't like them." Daniel added, briefly rolling his shoulders as he stood akimbo.

Pendergast frowned. "Is it contagious?"

"Not in the least sir, all the evidence suggests the strain died out a long time ago. These genetic scars are the only thing left of the disease. The biology wing of Area 51 were able to create a copy based off their DNA, which included samples from Sergeant Arc. However, they were unable to determine whether it was viable or not." Carter explained, gesturing to the screen as she spoke.

"If you're wondering, Hammond and the Joint Chiefs never gave approval for human testing." Daniel remarked as an afterthought.

This failed to remove the officers frown. "Why would they want to?"

Both members of SG-1 stared at him for a moment. The bespectacled man sucked in a breath before sighing. "You... didn't read the report about this place, did you?"

"Doctor, I've spent the past month getting lectured by an Asgard engineer in what passed for baby talk, mispronounced his name at least twice, then was given orders to travel a couple thousand lightyears with a crew and F302 squadron whose respective competency I have yet to judge. No, I haven't had time to read the report. Did you?" Pendergast's voice had become droll as he stared down the unintimidated civilian.

"Yeah, I wrote half of it. I was hoping someone else skimmed it on the way here." Daniel responded, completely at ease.

O'Neill closed in on the small gathering with Teal'c behind him, feeling left out. He deflated when his cleared throat failed to surprise any of them. "You really should've. Saw that sword the kid had? It wasn't for show."

"People here have the ability to generate some kind of naturally occurring force field which can negate incoming damage, save for directed energy weapons. Neither I or the Area 51 scientists are sure of how it works." Carter pursed her lips in irritation. "But we're mostly certain these genetic markers are responsible."

"Makes 'em all Jedi." O'Neill opined with a smirk. Behind him Teal'c stared disapprovingly.

"Inaccurate analogies aside sir." Carter started, heedless of O'Neill turning glum. "The primary reason the retrovirus testing at Area 51 never went forward was the sheer level of physical and mental conditioning needed to use it effectively. As a rule, a BGEF user..." she trailed off when blank looks met her.

"Biologically Generated Energy Field." Teal'c recited helpfully, ignoring Daniel's muttering about the acronym department.

"Right, although here its known as Aura. Anyway sir, a BGEF user requires years of training to manipulate one with any degree of skill, let alone to be considered ready for active combat. Even if the treatment worked, projected training to even activate the field would take an absolute minimum of five years, assuming it worked in the first place. The timeframe and unknown variables made the Joint Chiefs veto human testing." Cater finished, holding her arms in front of her as she waited.

Pendergast was still, frowning while he processed the information he was given. "So, the contamination risk..."

"None. Except for the usual disease barrier, but it looks like they have a pretty good medical system down there." Daniel said on Carter's behalf, jabbing a thumb in the general direction of the planet.

"I see..." Pendergast nodded, thinking carefully. When he raised a brow at her again, the blonde composed herself.

"I helped with the initial research at Area 51 Colonel. The notes are in my cabin, I felt the data results could've useful in one way or another. If you're curious sir, I'm not the one who coined the BGEF term." Carter answered the unspoken question, flashing an unhappy frown for a second.

"That explains it." he said, before turning back O'Neill. "Regardless Colonel, you should've informed me of something like this first."

"It was in the report. C'mon, even I read it." O'Neill shrugged easily, his half mocking tone fading when he saw his team glancing at him suspiciously. "I did, seriously."

"What was on page five?" Daniel probed.

O'Neill smirked as he stabbed a finger at the doctor. "A hand drawn picture of the planet, since none of the kids had a real map on em. After that was a summary of the political climate there." he said triumphantly.

Daniel nodded blankly. "Page seven?"

"How about." Pendergast interrupted the quiz. "We move on so I have something to tell the brass other than 'never mind' about the outbreak. You were down there for almost four hours."

O'Neill sighed as he dug his hands into his pockets, putting on a fake grin. "How did it go." he paraphrased, glancing to the Jaffa. "Hey Teal'c, wanna tell him how it went?"

"Poorly." he duly answered. Consequently, both Carter and Daniel coughed.

A dip of Pendergast's head prompted Carter to go on, the woman's voice showing a level of strain that certainly wasn't there a minute ago. "Headmaster Ozpin was a polite host, but he drove a hard bargain. And, well, our intel was wrong."

"Yeah, turns out that here, 'significant influence.'" O'Neill waggled his fingers in the air before dropping them. "Translates to basically the most powerful man on the continent."

"When Major Carter outlined what we desired for trade, Headmaster Ozpin offered fifteen percent of this world's Dust production to be available for purchase. The amount he indicated was in the hundreds of tons. In addition, he made it clear much of Atlas Kingdom's military equipment was open for negotiation." Teal'c explained, his customary stoicism unable to entirely mask his amazement.

"No big honkin space guns, but they still got a lot of neat toys. You know they have droids down there? I always wanted my own R2D2." O'Neill tipped his head back, grinning at the possibilities.

Pendergast frowned in thought. "What'd he want in exchange?"

As he feared, only Teal'c didn't turn away.

"Well sir..." Carter glanced to an interesting terminal, the Major's discipline keeping something as maudlin as sheepishness from taking over her expression. "While Ozpin did offer a lot, he made it clear he would only make a case to his counterparts if what we exchanged was of equal value."

"Such as?" Pendergast asked, an ugly feeling working into his gut.

"He wanted weapons."

The venom in Daniel's tone was enough to leave everyone in earshot taken aback, from Pendergast to a few airmen on the bridge. He glanced to each of them, his bespectacled gaze narrowed to a fine point.

"It was the first thing Ozpin brought up when I asked him what we could offer back." he explained testily.

O'Neill leveled a flat look on him. "Alright, I didn't do this down there since I was trying to leave a good impression. But since we're here, think it over." he crossed his arms, unmoved despite the unhappy look landing on him.

Carter cleared her throat. "Hate to say it Daniel, but he's right. Ozpin did make a valid point; Remnant is not like most worlds we go to. I understand where you're coming from, but things are different here. To be honest, the way he described the Grimm reminded me of the Replicators."

"Took the words right out of my mouth." O'Neill told her, before switching back to Daniel. "Look, I get why you're upset. You think they're gonna turn right around and take over their neighbors." he said, rolling his shoulders.

"Or destroy themselves. You know they're gonna ask for nukes." Daniel challenged.

"Stargate Command has given weapons to the Free Jaffa on numerous occasions, even following the disbandment of the alliance between them, the Tok'ra, and the Tau'ri." Teal'c informed.

"I objected to that too." Daniel said sourly.

O'Neill sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Daniel, I can always count on you to be my conscience. But right now, you really need to stop and look at the situation they got here. Do I need to remind you of the time you forced the brass to give the Russians Naquadah tech?"

"That was different." Daniel half growled.

"Giving the key to super nukes to same guys who held a gun to our heads for forty years, versus not helping out new friends." he held up his hands for both topics, waving them to get his point across.

"Did Ozpin mention what kind of weapons they wanted? Related to that, did you tell him our small arms are next to useless against the Grimm creatures?" Pendergast questioned, eliciting a derisive snort from O'Neill. "And while I'm on the subject Colonel, why are you having such a hard time believing Arc on that matter?"

"No, no, and because he's a kid." O'Neill stated flatly. "He's young, dumb, wants to impress me, and by extension Hammond, so he can keep his job. That's why."

"That's your reasoning?" Pendergast questioned, not quite disbelievingly.

"Seen it before, some new guy wants to be the best and ends up screwing things up. If he's lucky, the kid will only get himself hurt." he shrugged off. "Besides, they're just animals, nothing a lot of lead won't take down."

"I recall you expressing similar disbelief regarding the Kull Warriors apparent invulnerability." Teal'c reminded, making O'Neill roll his eyes.

"I was wrong then, and you got me to say I'm sorry. If that's the case here, then I'll apologize to the kid. Until then, I'll believe it when I see it." he declared, turning expectantly back to the commander.

"And nobody cares about us being arms dealers." Daniel muttered under his breath.

"We are likely to blame for the request Daniel Jackson. Stressing the danger of the Goa'uld would convince Headmaster Ozpin he have superior weapons to which to defend ourselves." Teal'c turned to speak, thus far the only one to stay in the same pose.

"What he said, and I'll raise you this: what if you're wrong? Heck, what if it was all a test? That Ozzy guy seemed like the wily type, I wouldn't put it past him if he asked about weapons to get a feel for what kind of people we are." O'Neill planted a fist on his waist, grinning at his deduction skills.

"Sir, I'm mostly sure he was serious about the weapons, although I could be wrong." Carter told him before going back to Pendergast. "On a better note, Ozpin did express interest in our medical sciences and power generators. Naquadah reactors and nuclear technologies are off the table of course, but there's no shortage of alternatives."

"Giving the people of Remnant a gate address to an uninhabited world remains an option, though we did not mention this to Headmaster Ozpin." Teal'c added, watching the commander relax after the second part.

Pendergast nodded, allowing a faint smile to cross his features. "Alright, not a total loss."

"You're gonna be singing a different tune in a minute." O'Neill said, casting a look on Carter.

Pendergast's smile dropped in an instant. "What do you mean by that?" he questioned sternly, turning to the Major.

"Yes sir, that..." Carter answered evasively, taking a moment to inspect the ceiling. Though highly disciplined, maintaining her expression without a blush was taxing her abilities to the limit. "To help break the ice, I suggested... a tour of the _Prometheus_."

Pendergast stared at her wide eyed, for a moment unable to speak. When he pointed to the floor beneath them, Carter nodded sheepishly.

"Obviously the reactor, weapons systems, and engines are off limits. The only sensitive areas Ozpin will be getting a good look at will be the bridge and possibly the hanger bay. Regarding security, if necessary we can just beam him off the ship." she offered in a consolatory tone, which did nothing to help the Colonel's deteriorating expression.

"Hey, don't flip out." O'Neill stepped into his line of sight with an open hand towards the greying man. "C'mon, we've had alien reps on the ship before. Nothing blew up last time."

"If you are referring to Tangrea, the ship's hyperdrive exploded before the representatives came on board." Teal'c said neutrally, raising his brow at Pendergast's twitching eye.

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 _Beacon, late afternoon..._

It was a nice day, warm and comforting as the bright sun coasted across the skies. There were a few clouds on the horizon however, and the weather forecast hinted at rain in the near future. But to those out and about for their various reasons, it wasn't a concern worth caring about. From a gaggle of chattery first years to three outsiders arriving in nearby Vale, most judged it acceptable for an autumn day.

Beacon was not exempt from the pleasant weather, the light permeating inside the bowels of the combat school through every opening. Such was the case of a smaller room, sunlight streaming through several windows upon a marked ten meter circle. In this particular room, five guests watched a rare occasion with excitement. While not everything in the scarred Academy was fully functional, all but a couple of the sparing arenas were intact, available to students and guests alike.

On one side of the circle stood Jaune, features flushed as he panted hard. He carefully stepped to the side, gripping Crocea Mors tightly with the sword and shield held at chest height. The young man was staring resolutely at his opponent, ready for whatever she had in store. Her smooth movements wore his patience thin, but he didn't make a move yet. Not until the impromptu judge gave the signal.

Matching his combat stance with her own, Eliane was the pinnacle of calm. The blonde huntress had removed her cloak, keeping her dark colored outfit from boots to gloves. Her head was all the skin she showed, her uneven hair tied into a functional ponytail. While her brother was short of breath, Eliane appeared barely stressed. He had a sword and shield, both lacking any colors but silver and black; she had an artfully crafted blue and silver claymore, held away from her to almost trail the hard floor. The only thing they shared was a look of intense concentration.

Immediately outside the circle, Ruby took a deep breath as she swished her hand through the open air. "Begin."

Jaune was fast, barreling down on the taller girl in an instant. With a grunt he brought the shield up to intercept a fast swipe of the sword, Eliane using the chance to weave around him. Jaune caught the next blow with his sword, the sharp edge swatting aside the blade as he twisted around. Each slash was returned by his own sword, a grunt leaving him after each impact.

Suddenly Eliane backed away, holding her weapon in a two handed grip as she tracked his every move. "Your Aura is impressive."

She punctuated her sentence with a mad dash, Jaune deflecting the stab with his shield. The loud screech of grinding metal wasn't enough to distract either of them, as he swung Crocea Mors around to smack her back. Her Aura absorbed the blow, but it still managing to stagger her for a second. He tried to follow up on the attack, only to be met by a resounding clash of her own sword. The vibration traveled from the blade into his arm, causing the blond to wince. More importantly, it let her back away once again.

"Reaction time, overall speed, excellent." Eliane commented through her rough breathing.

Jaune charged again, darting to the side in the last second. Eliane was ready though, ducking under the attempted bash of the shield to meet his wide swipe. The clash of blades was loud, Eliane gripping her sword with both hands as Jaune put as much of his power into the attack as possible. For a moment the siblings were stalemated, both swords shaking under the strain.

Features wrinkled from effort, Eliane looked deep into Jaune's strained grimace. "Physical strength... vastly improved."

Without warning she drove a knee into his torso, slamming into his plate. While far from enough to stop him, Jaune still felt the air being driven from his lungs. Eliane used the opportunity to swing the sword around, forcing his temporarily slackened arm to go where she wanted to. A rapid swipe was met by his shield, leaving his body wide open for her to deliver a powerful fist in the center of his armor.

Forced backwards, Jaune went on the defensive as she swiped the sword at him. He blocked and parried the light attacks, but the sheer speed of the blows were too great for him to properly counter. In his haste he didn't realize she had caught Crocea Mors on the wrong angle, letting her contemptuously brush it aside. His eyes were wide as she whipped herself around to deliver a rapid kick to his stomach.

The young man was taken off his feet entirely, boldly sailing out of the arena to hit the much harder tile outside. He managed to keep ahold of his weapons the first time he bounced, but the second was too much. The shield and sword clattered to the floor, firmly out of reach. Skidding for a second, Jaune slid across the floor approximately three meters before he finally stopped. Only then did he go limp, flopping to a rest.

Several meters away, the audience stared breathlessly from their spots. Nora was the first to find her voice, slowly bringing her hands together and resisting the urge to clap. "Woah."

"Wow, you got destroyed." Yang chuckled, wearing a wide smile while her hands were on her hips. "And here I thought today was boring."

"I've seen fighting styles like this before, but not in action." Weiss commented, similarly amazed. Both Ruby and Ren nodded in agreement, the latter showing some worry when a weak groan left the defeated fighter.

Eliane jerked her arm; with a brief clack of metal the sword was broken apart, transforming itself into a recurve bow. After reattaching the weapon to her back, she calmly left the arena to her brother, not giving the observers a second glance. Jaune was sitting up on his own when she reached him, breathing deeply. With his hands propping his torso up, the young man tilted his head back towards his victorious opponent.

"Your swordsmanship needs improvement. You're committing at the wrong times, and using too much force too often. If you were my enemy, I would have killed you by now." Eliane told him neutrally, likewise winded. Jaune groaned as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, sighing. When he looked up again, he found a gloved hand in front of him. "You need a lot of work."

He stared at the hand for a second, evidently considering the offer. With a sigh Jaune grasped the proffered glove, Eliane tugging hard to pull him onto his feet. "Missed you too Ellie."

The young man was thrown off balance when she unexpectedly let go, although he steadied himself after a moment. A glance confirmed she abandoned him for Crocea Mors, slipping her boot under the blade before flicking it upwards. He took a breath when she snatched the grip in mid air, turning the sword around so she could examine it more closely, like she had been wanting to do since she first laid eyes on the heirloom.

When he cleared his throat, she glanced over to find his open hand outstretched. "Give."

Eliane showed considerable reluctance at handing over the weapon, offering him the handle first while her hands rested on the flat edge of the sword. Jaune took Crocea Mors back, aware of how her eyes were roaming over the black vein in the center of the blade. That done, he briefly walked over to snag his shield, collapsing it over the sword while he strode to the others. He had to look back to Eliane, making sure she was trotting after him.

Yang and Nora were the first he passed, both girls smirking with their arms crossed. Nora clapped him on the shoulder, grinning when he winced. "Cheer up, you weren't that bad."

"You just suck in comparison." Yang half joked, even as he sent her a dry look. She laughed as he passed, dropping her arms to her sides when the taller woman followed him. "You're good." she complimented, sticking out her left hand for a high five.

A flicker of a frown crossed Yang when Eliane jerked away, backing away a step with her blue gaze now latched onto the other blonde. "I am good at what I do, yes."

Left hanging, Yang lowered her hand with a cough. "So, where'd you learn to fight like that?" she asked, perking herself back up.

"Were you taught by an old monk in the woods? Tell me it was an old monk." Nora butted in, fists quivering as she jerked closer. Doubt crossed her as well when she purposely edged away, keeping the orange haired girl at arms length.

"I learned some things from my father, but most of what I know comes from here." Eliane responded, gesturing around the room.

Yang tilted her head, her brow rising. "You graduated from Beacon?" she asked quickly, earning a brief nod.

"I was resting in Vacuo when I heard news of the battle. Seeing the damage in person is... sobering." she paused to shake her head. "You're a student here, how long have you been attending?"

Meanwhile Jaune stopped by Ren, Ruby, and Weiss, the former two offering what they could for sympathy.

"Don't feel bad about losing. Your sister is an experienced Huntress, you would've struggled even if you were fully trained." the white haired girl offered soothingly, causing the blond to stop and tip his head back. A quiet sigh left him.

"I think you did okay. You got in a couple good hits anyway." Ruby told him with an easygoing shrug, smiling reassuringly.

Ren quickly cleared his throat while he leaned down to her head, cupping a hand in front of his mouth. "You know she was holding back." he said softly, making her wince.

"I know, but I'm not gonna tell him that." she replied in the same way, holding a hand in front of her like he was.

"No, you're right." Jaune groaned, jerking his head back down. "She's always been the better fighter. Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think there's anybody in this room who can beat Ellie in a one-on-one match." he said, rolling his shoulders while idly adjusting the sword on his belt.

Weiss huffed, although she frowned at the same time. "I'm afraid you're probably right. My technique may be better than hers, but she has strength and experience on her side." she said, casting a sidelong glance towards Yang and Nora. The two of them were still chatting away with the Huntress, a few seconds of observation revealing they were getting nowhere.

"We're rusty, that's a good enough excuse for why you lost." Ren offered, crossing his muscular arms.

Jaune sighed again, but he did give the three of them a small smile. "Its fine. I knew I was gonna lose the moment she suggested sparring."

"Why'd she wanna fight you in the first place? If I hadn't seen Yang in a few years, I'm not gonna want to beat her up right away." Ruby frowned, glancing around for support.

"My sister and I aren't on the best of terms, but Winter wouldn't suggest a duel within the first couple hours." Weiss opined as she crossed her arms, catching Ren nodding in agreement.

"Ellie is just that kind of person. To be honest I was hoping we'd talk over dinner or something, but I should've known better. Speaking of." he suddenly frowned, bringing up his wrist for the watch. "Pyrrha and Blake have been gone for a while now."

The lone door to the room opened just as he finished, causing seven pairs of eyes to abandon what they were doing to check on the movement. Swinging open, Blake was the first through the entrance. The two shopping bags she carried jostled as she walked, the faunus scanning over the room as she gave way. Pyrrha followed her in, carrying one shopping bag while she had the dark haired girl's book bag slung over her shoulder. Before going to the others she paused to shut the door behind her, a clack making sure it was firmly latched.

Meeting up with the group, Blake dug into the first bag to withdraw a bag of snacks, handing over the first to Weiss.

"Sorry for being late, someone lit a fire in the Academy shop." she apologized, taking a second to frown at Jaune's roughed up form.

"That explains why you were gone for a while." Weiss commented, accepting a small carton of vegetables. She gave Ruby a disapproving look when the red toned girl eagerly took a box of cookies, which made her send an apologetic nod to Weiss before tearing into her weakness.

"I'm convinced it was either the Kettu twins or Masculum. I just hope its not the start of a prank war." Blake shuddered, Weiss and Ruby nodding empathetically while the three women returned to the others.

"Lets hope not. Thanks by the way." Yang said, catching her treat when Blake tossed it. Nora snatched hers out of midair as well, giving her a thumbs up rather than speaking.

Pyrrha handed a can of soda to Ren before moving on, flashing a sympathetic look at Jaune while he listlessly took a juice box. She moved on, shortly coming up to Eliane while the Huntress tracked her. Digging into her bag for a moment, Pyrrha retrieved her prize.

"Here." she offered the small carton of ice cream and a plastic spoon, aware of Yang and Weiss leaning around to see what she had.

Eliane raised a brow. "Thank you." she said, taking the carton from her loose grasp.

As Pyrrha gave the woman a welcoming smile, Yang saw what was on the label, immediately wrinkling her nose. "Mint? Really?"

"I was gonna ask you why you bought that back at the shop." Blake commented, pulling out a soda once everyone else was tended to.

"Mint ice cream isn't my first choice." Weiss said, working her shoulder to loosen up. "I'm sure it wasn't something you liked before."

"I didn't, and still don't. But I... I figured she'd like it." Pyrrha tilted her head towards Eliane, who nodded in acknowledgment before she dug in.

"Good call though." Jaune complimented with a small smile, getting a sheepish shrug from her. The book bag resting on her shield rustled, jostling whatever objects were inside.

Conversation halted as the gathered friends ate, regardless of the time. Only Weiss showed concern about the hour, but she knew her friends were not in the mind to care about the scheduled dinner period. Blake's shopping bag was shortly re-purposed into a garbage, starting with Jaune's empty carton. Once he was done however the blond drew his scroll, checking up on the freshly updated system. He was milling around, trying hard to avoid looking too obvious about his internal nervousness.

Eliane was the last to finish up, the young woman handing over her garbage before going to her brother's side. The assembled seven adjusted footing, worked arms, and made uncountable small movements to loosen up. Whatever kept the awkwardness at bay.

Finally Jaune turned to face the taller blonde, while she bored holes into him. "Here we go, just like I promised." he sighed, idly rubbing a shoulder. "So, where do you want me to start?"

"Where have you been for the past three years?" Eliane questioned expectantly, crossing her arms while she waited.

"Where indeed." he murmured as he briefly tilted his head back, squeezing his eyes shut. When he lowered to face her again, he brought his hands together to rub. "Okay, how do I put this..." he inhaled deeply, deciding on his approach.

"I, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora." he gestured to his team in turn, the orange haired girl giving a small wave when Eliane looked. "Have been on an alien world for the past three years, thanks to an extraterrestrial transportation device called a Stargate, which shunts someone from one planet to another instantly. Up until a couple days ago, none of us knew where Remnant was. That was until Ruby and her team." he pointed to the girls, although she didn't follow his finger this time. "Located the machine by accident. They found me, I got everybody else to the same spot, and we all came back together."

There was silence in the room. It was so quiet, the sounds of rustling clothing as the girls and boy moved to keep blood flowing were nearly distracting. A quiet set of taps came from Weiss picking up her feet to stretch her leg, followed by Nora quietly rubbing her shoulders. Ren and Yang were the only observers not visibly fighting back a grimace, the latter wincing instead.

Eliane was frozen in place, her breathing being the only movement she made for a solid minute. When she looked away again, Jaune fought back a cringe. At last she took a small breath, letting out a quiet, "Well..."

"Not how I'd put it, but that's what happened. Hang on." Blake interrupted, stepping forward and yanking out her scroll. Ignoring the looks from the others, she turned the open screen to the blonde, letting her take the device. "I took these when we first stepped through."

Jaune edged to the side so he could see too, noting how Eliane's irises were faintly glowing. On the scroll, he saw her swiping through several images which seemed unremarkable at first glance. Small details gave away where the pictures were taken; the sky wasn't quite right, the topography wasn't an exact match, the forests were different, and so on. She paused over the image of a black circular statue with Yang standing beside it for scale, as well as a tall obelisk with strange markings in the next one.

The image after that cased Eliane to pause. What she stopped on was the Stargate, this time with a surface of glowing water in the center. When he grunted, the woman flinched from the unexpected sound.

"That's an active Gate." he explained, pointing a finger on the screen.

"Cimmeria is the name of the planet we went to. The people there were a little weird, but they were nice." Ruby supplied with a weak shrug.

Eliane nodded blankly, holding the scroll out so Blake could take it back. Letting her arm fall, the woman turned to the rest of his team this time. "You were there this whole time?"

At that all three clammed up, Nora and Pyrrha glancing away while Ren briefly inspected his shoes. Jaune sucked in a breath, grinding his teeth together. "No."

When she turned back to him, Weiss crossed her arms behind her back before speaking up. "We found Jaune on Cimmeria, but he was with a group of people from a place called Earth. They were soldiers."

The moment the last word left her mouth, Jaune winced. Eliane sent her a puzzled frown before turning back to him, showing confusion. "Soldiers? What were you doing with soldiers?"

He needed a moment to get himself together, schooling his features into as neutral of a state as possible. When he reached a hand out to her, Eliane visibly bristled at the proximity. But after a second of thought, she gave a small nod for him to rest the hand on her shoulder, forcing down a flinch at the contact.

"Okay, I know how you're gonna react. All I'm asking for is for you to hear me out for a minute, please?" Jaune asked her softly, gently squeezing.

The young woman looked uncomfortable, glancing unhappily at his arm for a second. "Alright, I'm listening."

"Okay." he took a deep breath. "The place Weiss mentioned, Earth? I signed up with their military."

To the seven onlookers, the brief look of surprise Eliane sported was entirely expected. What none of them were prepared for was the followup: her eyes narrowed dangerously, rapidly adopting a look of hostility.

"You became a soldier." Eliane said simply, her voice as cold as ice.

A weak huff left him as he slowly shook his head. "Yeah, I knew you were going to do this."

"Why did you do this to yourself?" she questioned darkly, giving his arm a suspicious look.

With a sigh he drew the limb back, choosing to grab his elbows again. "This is why I said hear me out."

Eliane didn't relent on her cold look. "I'm disappointed in you." she told him, eliciting a flinch. "You were raised better than this Jaune. You know how empty the soldiers path is, meaningless titles and hollow gains don't justify sacrificing your honor and the honor of our family. Why did you do it?"

"It's not that simple Ellie." he pressed on, wrinkling his expression.

"Excuse me, did I miss something here?"

Although both Arcs glanced over, their expressions couldn't have been more different; Jaune wore an unhappy grimace tinged by unease, while Eliane was silently indignant.

Yang cared nothing for their looks, frowning while she had a fist on her waist. "Why are you chewing him out? This is the first time you've seem him in like three years-"

"Four years." she corrected, getting Yang to huff.

"Whatever. What's your problem?" she snapped, joined by quick nods from Ruby, Nora, and Weiss.

"You weren't disturbed by this?" Eliane questioned with a wave towards the quietly sighing Jaune.

Yang was caught off guard, but some quick thinking was enough to get her back on track. "Well, at first yeah, but once he explained what the big deal was, it was okay. Right? It was fine for you guys." she turned to ask.

"Yeah, yeah." Ruby agreed quickly, bobbing her head in tune with Weiss. Nora flashed her a thumbs up, although Pyrrha and Ren weren't doing the same. Both had their arms crossed, but only the redhead openly showed her unease.

"Not gonna mention how you're biased?" Jaune stated, getting a scolding look from her and several curious glances from the others. He quickly coughed into a fist. "Ellie got caught in an Atlesian search and destroy mission a few years ago, she never let it go."

"That's why you're being mean?" Nora asked in surprise, wrinkling her features incredulously.

"My distaste for soldiers began long before that incident. It only reinforced my position." she replied guardedly, features narrowed as she shifted her weight from foot to foot.

"That's not right." Ruby protested, unable to help herself from flinching a little when the blonde's hard gaze fell on her. "The Earthers aren't like that. They don't bomb places without telling people to get out of the way." she pointed out. When all of JNPR suddenly coughed loudly, she had to stop so she could send the now quietly nervous four a questioning look.

Eliane's countenance remained unconvinced. Turning her head, she affixed her gaze on Jaune once more. "What was it then, what was so important that you cast your principles aside? Were you forced?" she guessed, a hint of a worried frown coming over her.

Rubbing his elbows, Jaune huffed. "I volunteered, they didn't force me."

"Then why?" she questioned him. She then turned to Pyrrha and Ren, frowning at them as well. "Did any of you try talking him out of it?"

The redhead briefly inhaled, rubbing her elbows. "It was my idea for us to join up with them."

"All... all four of you." Eliane spoke, earning a quick nod. She stared at Pyrrha for a long moment, her rarely blinking gaze unsettling to look at. When she looked away, the blonde frowning at something.

"I'm angry, but I'm lost too." Nora stated, her brow raised prominently. "What are you mad at anyway?"

Eliane raised her head to the girl. "I have nothing more to say to you." she said simply, turning to the door to stride away.

Jaune sucked in a pained breath, muttering, "Ellie..." as he jogged after her. She flung the door open to stride out, heedless of the young man grabbing her shoulder.

When the door clicked shut, there was silence in the room once again.

"Okay, what just happened?" Yang asked with a flop of her arms, utterly dumbfounded. "Seriously, she was cool for a minute, then she flipped out. Over what?"

"I'm genuinely lost too." Ren agreed, frowning.

"Same. I thought she was going to be weirded out for a minute, but then she would congratulate you guys once she heard the story." Ruby said, now glum. Internally the red toned girl was reviewing the conversation, but she couldn't point towards anything which could've set her off.

"Anyone else think their last chat back home wasn't exactly friendly?" Weiss asked, crossing her arms.

Blake sighed, shaking her head in disappointment. "I was rehearsing a summary for what we saw on Earth this whole time. Even grabbed some stuff from the guest dorm to show her. Talk about wasted effort."

"Stuff?" Ruby asked, which she answered with a nod towards Pyrrha.

The cue made the redhead duly unslung the bag, holding it one handed while she opened the flap. Pyrrha didn't fully withdraw the contents, only picking up an item to show them.

"Blake let me use her book bag, since walking around with this." she explained, holding the recognizable stock of a P90 in her grip. "Wasn't a good idea. Its yours by the way, hope you don't mind." she apologized to Ren, who waved her off while she stuffed it back in.

Ruby took a breath, pushing aside her interest in the Earther gun. "I'm gonna go after them, anyone want to join me?" she asked the two teams.

She didn't know why Eliane reacted like she did, but she knew standing around wasn't going to get her any answers. Going for the door, Ruby resolved to get an apology from the blonde, whatever it took.

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 **A/N: the first draft of this was far better, believe me.**


	17. Old faces, New places

**A/N: Hey, look at that, it's officially been a year and change since I started Not What You Expected. That's neat I guess. Also, my other story, You Came Back, is officially done. So updates for this should be faster (unless life decides to slap me for my arrogance).**

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"What're we even doing here?" questioned Valentine, half speaking to the seven others in his party. Reaching around to adjust his axe, he swept his gaze from one to the other, searching for answers.

Dusk was on the horizon, mitigated by Vale's seemingly eternal glow. Not that it made a difference to the two teams wandering around the seedier parts of the city; fully half of the group were faunus, so the light level wasn't a hindrance. But to Valentine, sore from a long day then walking for hours on end thanks to his counterpart's directions, he wanted nothing more than to call it quits.

"We've been going in circles." Elise whined, slumping.

"How much longer?" Erik likewise complained, matching his sister's malaise.

Raoul was silent, but he could tell the large teen's patience was beginning to wear thin. Being fully armed wasn't helping anyone, Valentine in particular having to keep slinging around Foe-Smiter to stop being poked every ten seconds. The strap was digging into his shoulder, rubbing the skin underneath his jacket raw.

Peering to the sides of the underclassmen, he found sympathy and glee in equal measure. Briefly matching looks with the former, the teen who was roughly his age winced as he massaged his neck.

"Hey Oscar, you tired yet?" Valentine asked, hoping that by convincing him, he could get his leader to cut this training exercise short.

"Well..." Oscar Pines glanced away, uncertainty in his steps. He too was showing his exhaustion; the heavy breastplate and large sword he carried couldn't have been light, not to mention the weird black greave he wore. The former farmhand (Val mulled he never did explain how or why he gave up farming to become a Huntsman) may have been politely meek, but when he decided on something, he tended to stick to it.

"By all means, keep complaining. It's music to my ears." went the cheerful voice from the other side, one that never failed to grate on Valentine's nerves. Glancing over, he narrowed his eyes at the white haired faunus, cheerfully walking along with zero sign of strain. Masculum Aries returned his hostility with a grin. "Pain is just weakness leaving the body. Now tell me, how much pain are you feeling?"

Valentine stared hard at the goat horned girl, distinctly unhappy with her right now. It was bad enough she failed to look strained whatsoever by all the activity, but she didn't even bother to change from her normal school outfit. The only thing she did for preparation was nab a large circular blade, clamping it to her back to carry. 'Praestigiator' she called the thin circle of black metal, always deflecting any question of what it meant.

"Just because you're not tired doesn't mean the rest of us aren't." Valentine shot back, the twins vigorously nodding in agreement.

"Not much further." went the ever calm voice in front of Valentine, catching his attention.

Twisting around, Ron Mavros offered a shrug. The tall and lanky guy clad up to his chin in a thick black outfit was usually friendly, even helping him with homework a few times. Valentine wasn't returning the feeling right now, since the snake faunus looked as tired as Masculum, which was to say not at all. He thought it was strange since the engraved black sword strapped to his back, Hydra, was far larger than her weapon.

"We're almost done, just give it about another half hour." Ron offered, his tied back dreadlocks rustling with his movement.

"Are you sure?" the twins chorused, casting suspicious looks on the tall student.

Valentine found the strength to jog up a bit further, to the leader of their little party. Tapping on her shoulder, he asked, "Bael, we done yet?"

"Almost, just need to search a bit longer." she answered distantly, her ribbed black horns swiveling in place as she looked around the emptying streets.

The green haired faunus in a thick jumpsuit was shorter than all of them, shorter than even Ruby. Yet that didn't stop her from lugging around a rifle almost as long as she was tall, with a sharp edge down the length of the barrel. Vera she named it, always referring to the gun with female pronouns. He didn't get why, and whenever he asked she blew him off.

"What're you even looking for? Seriously, professor Port told me you guys were doing a training thing and asked if we would join you after classes." she turned her head to him as he spoke, revealing brilliant eyes the same shade as her hair. "But all we've done for the past hour was walk around, in this run down area too." he finished, sparing an apprehensive look at their surroundings.

"And what if I said we are training?" Bael asked him enigmatically, her face utterly neutral. Behind him Masculum smothered a laugh.

"To do what? Walk for a while?" Valentine threw his hands up, immediately adjusting his axe once more.

Bael cracked a smile. "When we get back, I'll fill you in on what you did right and what you did wrong. But between you and me, you've done well so far."

Valentine groaned, slapping his forehead. This caused Bael to cover her mouth, stifling a laugh. "You're too impatient."

"And your Aura's weird." he grumbled back.

Two meters from him, the twins sent an unhappy look upon Oscar, who waved his hands placatingly in the face of their rage. Their identical semblances triggered to make them glow, definitely getting across their displeasure. All Raoul did was sigh, keeping his calm as he strode onwards with his friends. The dark of night was encroaching, casting long shadows from the buildings.

In an empty warehouse a short distance away, a blind was slapped shut. The observer turned from the window to briskly move further into the building, keeping one ear open for the quiet alarm from the cameras. The gaggle of students outside passed in front of their hideout by accident, but next time it could be a different story. She aimed to be ready for anything that came her way.

Stepping into the main loading area, Emerald Sustri needed a second to note the location of her partner: leaning with his arms crossed on the wall right beside the door, evidently waiting on her.

"Anything?" asked Mercury Black, the grey haired young man in similarly toned armor and pants giving her an appraising look.

Emerald fought back the urge to grind her teeth. "Just some students wandering around."

How she hated this fool, especially since she was stuck with him for the time being. Mercury's disdain for anyone besides himself, general smarminess, and utter lack of regret made him as much of a liability as an asset. Emerald thought of him as a dog; not without his uses, but never to be relied upon. His loyalty to their cause and willingness to do anything Cinder told him to were his only redeeming traits in her mind.

"Students huh? Sure they weren't scoping this place out?" Mercury asked with a coy smile.

"I'm sure. You would've known if you looked yourself." Emerald retorted.

He shrugged, without so much as a hint of concern. "I'm here to take out some lost students. Spying on a random bunch of idiots your job, not mine."

"And how're you gonna do that if we get caught?" Emerald snapped. "You forget we're wanted fugitives here? Whatever." she groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she faced away. "Why can't that stupid White Fang rep get here already?"

"Told you, if you sleep on the flight, you don't get travel lag." Mercury reminded, grinning even as she shot him a glare.

"Is there a _problem_ here?"

Emerald and Mercury froze, the colors draining from their faces. Both whipped themselves around, spotting the third member of their little foray seeming to slither towards them.

"Squabbling children, what bothers you?" the one known as Tyrian Callows asked again, unwilling (or unable) to halt a chilling giggle from escaping his throat. Both of them flinched when he jerked himself upwards, although he mercifully didn't come any closer.

By physical appearance alone Tyrian was disturbing, beginning with his slender features and sharp yellow eyes. A short braided ponytail swung behind his head, yanking around to his frequent movements. Even the way he walked set off alarms in their heads, his unsynchronized pace giving every impression of stalking someone. Currently he garbed himself in the outfit of the White Fang with a leather jacket over his torso, the only thing either of his supposed companions could say was normal about him.

The green haired girl swallowed a lump; Salem told him Emerald was in charge, so she knew he wouldn't intentionally harm her... so she hoped.

"There were a few Beacon students walking around out front, they looked lost to me. Everything's fine." she reported, trying as hard as she could to keep the fear out of her voice. Mercury looking nervous wasn't enough to make up for dealing with him, not by far.

" _Really_." Tyrian purred, his head slowly tilting. "Should I go... _deal_ with them?" his tone rose in pitch, his unsettling gaze on her while he grinned.

Emerald needed a breath before she could continue. "No. We need to keep a low profile here in Vale, so we can get those missing people. Salem wouldn't be happy if we got arrested, or killed." she offered, watching his glee instantly morph into a disappointed frown. His near reverence of the thing they all ultimately owed their allegiance to had its uses, as Cinder warned before they left.

"Very well." Tyrian said sullenly, slinking away.

"You think the cops already know were in the city?" Mercury thought aloud, making his partner wince. "We took a Bullhead almost straight here, someone had to notice."

"That's only a problem if we aren't careful." Emerald reminded irately, casting a harsh glance on him for the comment.

Tyrian perked up, just as she feared he would. "Perhaps, when these _students_ are in our _grasp_ , then we can _thin_ their new flock-"

Again the sane members of the trio flinched, this time from the man jerking his head up. He swiveled around, a sudden empty look on his face.

"What's-" Emerald tried to asked, only to be cut off by a swipe of his hand.

" _Quiet_." he whispered. Creaking his head around, Tyrian narrowed his gaze towards the door. "There's someone outside."

Burying her fear, Emerald turned to the innocuous looking entrance nearby. She ran through every decision she made in the past couple days, but the greenete couldn't think of anything which could have gave them away. Glancing to the men, she found Mercury getting off the wall to resolutely stand behind her, while Tyrian withdrew a pair of curved knives from his sleeves, settling a dangerous look upon the incongruous door.

Smothering a groan, Emerald tip toed her way to the door, grabbing a pistol placed atop of a stray crate along the way. It was a good little weapon, Atlesian made, holding twenty Dust tipped caseless rounds. Not enough to deal with anything larger than a Beowolf, but she brought it and a couple rifles for much smaller game in mind. Creeping right up to the entrance, she spared one more look to confirm her comrades were still behind her. Placing a hand on the handle, she took a deep breath and swung it open, the pistol held high.

For a moment Emerald stared uncomprehendingly at the young woman standing right outside the door, dimly shocked. It took her several more seconds to dredge up her name, thanks to how long it had been since she last saw her.

"N-Neo." she sputtered, lowering the gun a few centimeters.

She looked almost exactly like how Emerald saw her last, albeit a couple years older as she could tell after some observation. Her hair was still half brunette and half pink, her sharp eyes closely matching the colors. The clothes she wore were similar as well, the white coat and boots contrasting sharply with her black pants and gloves. A parasol was held in her grip, comfortably resting on her shoulder. Her smile however was exactly the same, in an unmistakeable upturn of a pleased smirk.

"What-wha-how?" Emerald stuttered, shocked and confused.

Over her shoulder Mercury leaned, a flash of astonishment crossing him. "Hang on, I know this chick. You were that one thug's lackey, whatshisname, Roman or something?"

"You died, I'm sure of it." Emerald stabbed a finger at her. "You were on the command ship when the Atlesians blew the pile of junk out of the sky. There's no way you made it out."

In response, Neopolitan flicked her hand, producing a small card that she held out. Staring suspiciously, Emerald yanked it from her fingers to peer at it. Her scowl quickly turned to confusion as she gave her a dumbfounded look.

" _You're_ the White Fang rep?" she questioned incredulously, raising a brow when the two toned girl nodded.

Behind the young woman, Tyrian leveled a cold gaze on the stranger. Just by looking at her, the sharpened instincts he spent many years honing warned him this girl was untrustworthy. However, although he was confident in his ability to end her life, there were uncomfortable complications in such an action. As much as he hated it, Tyrian had to know more about her first. Once he knew who she served, then he would release the girl from her mortal coil.

Catching movement, his eyes peered downwards while Emerald prattled on. By the silent girl's feet toed a small red colored creature, rubbing against her legs as it came into the light. For a second Tyrian locked eyes with the fox, matching its emotionless gaze with his own. The small animal tipped its head once before turning to dart away, vanishing from his sight.

"Fine." Emerald huffed, motioning for the men to clear some room. "Get in here and give us all the intel you have. When you're done, tell me how you escaped a crashing airship in one piece."

Neo smiled, gracefully striding into the warehouse at the greenete's behest. All the while, Mercury regarded her with bemusement, and Tyrian coolly tracked every move she made.

00000

...

00000

 _The next day..._

Striding onto the VIP landing platform, Goodwitch awaited the coming of the Headmaster's guest. To pass the remaining few minutes until their arrival, the professor spared a glance at the distance; she spotted gathering clouds on the far horizon, the dark masses threatening to spill into a storm. A part of her noted how well it seemed to fit the predicament she was in, playing the part of a greeter to someone she disliked immensely.

She remembered Ozpin's reasoning, and while she maintained her disapproval, Goodwitch understood his logic. The blonde didn't like it, but the honest truth was she didn't need to. All the professor needed to do was her job, nothing more and nothing less.

Peering at the open sky again, Goodwitch thought she spotted four distant shapes drifting into view. The observation, although interesting in its own right, came secondary to another speck she identified, this one coming closer at a breakneck pace. Straightening up, she held herself in a ramrod posture as a blue and grey airship swooped on its final approach. She kept still even as the artificial gusts washed over her, fluttering her hair and cape backwards.

Roaring loudly, the Atlesian gunship pulled back as it hovered above the platform, the pilot aligning his craft into place. At an unseen cue the gunship descended, the screaming of the twin engines winding down in sync with its landing. Two meters from the ground hatches underneath the craft slid open, deploying landing struts which methodically accepted the weight of the VTOL. Once it was firmly settled, the engines finally cut out. Their mechanical whine wasn't fully gone when the back hatch began to lower.

Adding a bit more rigidness to her pose, Goodwitch schooled her features into a blank state while two figures emerged from the gunship. Focusing on the first striding towards her, she resisted the urge to sigh.

Tall, imposing, and clad in a white business like uniform, the clean shaven officer had his hands clasped behind his back as he came towards her, his expression a match for hers. The man paused outside of arms reach, nearly every facet of his form under strict control.

She nodded once in a curt acknowledgement. "Greetings General Ironwood. Welcome back to Beacon."

"Thank you professor Goodwitch." James Ironwood replied perfunctorily, showing nothing. His subordinate stopped on the edge of the ramp, knowing when she didn't belong. Noticing the blonde's bespectacled gaze ghosting over, Ironwood deigned to explain. "Commander Winter is in charge of the unit of Atlesian Specialists I brought. Given the urgency of Headmaster Ozpin's message, I felt their presence could be useful."

"I understand." Goodwitch replied coolly, turning to gesture behind her. "Follow me, the headmaster is waiting."

Neither spoke a word after the brief exchange. Glynda did what she was expected to do, guiding the foreign headmaster into the bowels of the tower. Walking in wide strides, she didn't bother checking on Ironwood's progress. He would keep up easily enough, she knew him well after all.

Inside the elevator, Ironwood cleared his throat. "So..."

"Headmaster Ozpin will explain everything in a moment. Have patience." she gently chided, not giving him a second look.

A quiet grunt was his response when the door slid opened, especially as she took off in a rapid pace. Goodwitch knew she had irritated him, but besides the obvious breach of trust between her and the headmaster, she didn't know how to approach breaking the story. How could she explain the things she had heard, where should she start telling him about a tale so wildly fantastic she almost rebuked the students for wasting her time? Although tinged by guilt, she was relieved Ozpin would be the one to handle this instead.

Pausing outside the Headmaster's office, she turned around gracefully to find out Ironwood easily kept up. Flicking the controls, she gestured inside. He gave her a questioning look as he stepped through, which went unreturned as he vanished from her view. Locking the door, Goodwitch let out a breath before straightening up; she still had work to do, namely preparing Vale for the Atlas detachment.

A small amount of Ironwood's discipline slipped when the door sealed shut behind him, ensuring their privacy. The stately General crossed the expansive office, his surprise at the sight before him overcoming the usual formalities.

"Ozpin, isn't this unexpected. I was under the impression your leg made walking difficult." he began, crossing his arms across his back as he came to a stop.

The strained master of Beacon paused in front of his desk, gripping his cane tightly. Turning his head, Ozpin mustered a small smile in greeting. "James, welcome. My apologies for the summons."

Ironwood waved an arm to dismiss him. "I've known you for a long time Ozpin, you wouldn't personally call me here unless the situation was dire. Much less ask for an Atlas military presence."

"Yes, about that." Ozpin tilted his head while he rested, his chest faintly swaying with his breathing.

"Your request was well timed, in a loose sense. There was a battlegroup already present in southern Vale when you contacted me, the 33rd Patrol Battalion. Four warships, approximately nine hundred soldiers and personnel, although their mechs are last generation." Ironwood pursed his lips at the thought of the public hysteria surrounding their primary offensive tools, thanks to the same battle which maimed his counterpart. In the end he couldn't blame them, not after their top of the line war machines turned on the people they were meant to protect. "Unfortunately their operation had just concluded, they were on their way back to Atlas when I diverted them here."

"A search and destroy mission?" Ozpin checked, leaning on the desk for support.

"Sweep and clear." Ironwood corrected, sighing at the blank look the man gave him. "Public relations has been working to shore up confidence after the Battle of Beacon, they believe the less 'aggressive' term would be less off putting to local communities."

"I see. But the forces I asked for will be here." Ozpin softly pressured. His tone elicited a slight frown from the General.

"Yes. The troops are tired and supplies are low, but there will be a battalion strength unit within Vale city limits in the next few hours. I'm afraid many of the local contractors and markets are going to be busy for a while, in your place I'd prepare for a Dust shortage." Ironwood explained, the lingering traces of his goodwill evaporating.

"Good. I doubt their presence will be necessary, but I'd rather not take chances." Ozpin spoke quietly, sliding his grip over the cane. He recognized the cues Ironwood emitted, and let out a breath. "You wish to know why, right?"

"I distinctly recall you disagreeing with me over the troops I brought for the Vytal Festival, claiming the show of force would worry the people. Yet here we have a significant force incoming, at your personal request no less. So, what are you afraid of?" he questioned pointedly.

Ozpin tilted his head back, giving the ceiling a weighted stare. "The unknown James."

"Pardon?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"There's so much about Remnant we don't know. There are great secrets, some we are burdened with keeping, but its a plain truth that knowledge of our own home is sorely lacking." he went on, lowering his gaze back to his counterpart.

"I don't understand." Ironwood gave him a curious stare, one that wasn't entirely harmless.

"So what happens when we are faced with a total unknown? Something outside our experience, almost beyond our understanding? What do we do?" Ozpin questioned flatly, settling a weighted look upon him.

Ironwood thought for a moment, frowning. "I can't give you an answer. I don't even know what you're talking about, so how can I make a choice without a clue about the variables?"

"That has been my dilemma for the past few days James. I was faced with something I believed I could handle, but as it turned out, I was wrong. Hopefully you will have a better grasp of how to proceed than I." In lieu of explaining what he was talking about, Ozpin reached behind his body to grab something. Instead of his prized coffee mug, he clutched a small device which he then held out to show. "Do you know what this is?"

Ironwood peered at the green block in his hand, noting a black antenna sticking out from the top. "I want to say it's a radio. I used something similar back when I was a student myself, but those were phased out when I received my officers commission. Why do you have one?"

"What would you do if I claimed a soldier from another world gave this to me yesterday?" Ozpin posed, retracting his hand.

"I'd ask if you're losing your mental faculties, for starters." Ironwood replied, frowning.

"I wondered that myself." he said softly, bringing the device up to his face and clicking something, making it beep. "Hello? This is Headmaster Ozpin calling the _Prometheus_."

Ironwood's attitude vanished when the device crackled. " _Copy Headmaster Ozpin, we read you loud and clear._ "

"Excellent. My guest and I are ready, you may bring us up whenever you're ready." he finished, noting the confusion on the General's expression.

" _Acknowledged, standby._ "

Clicking something, Ozpin lowered the radio as he kept a neutral expression on his compatriot. "I must ask you leave your weapon here for now. You should also lower your arm."

"Alright, what is going on?" Ironwood demanded, dropping both of his hands to the side while he stared coldly at the headmaster. The corners of Ozpin's mouth twitched up.

Before the General could protest further, there was a flash of powerful white light, accompanied by a strange high pitched noise. Whatever the light was, it lasted for an instant. Blinking away spots in his eyes, Ironwood fought down a wave of vertigo. Giving his head a slight shake, he began to take in his location.

When he processed the ambient sounds, the hardened soldier paused. Ironwood identified distinct voices; after a moment he recognized it as airship bridge chatter, a detail common to any large craft. More importantly, he heard a low hum in the air which certainly wasn't there a moment ago. Along with the sounds came new input; the air tasted different, possessing an unpleasant metallic aftertaste. The lights were dimmer too, plainly artificial. For a moment he didn't understand what he was looking at, being preoccupied by the radically different location his senses were exploring.

Movement tore him away from his thoughts, and he instinctively straightened up. But what he saw rendered him silent; a greying man, clad in a green jumpsuit studded by several unidentifiable patches, paused a couple meters away from him. The way he held himself, crossing his arms behind his back and nodding perfunctorily, gave him away as military. "Headmaster Ozpin, General Ironwood, I am Colonel Lionel Pendergast. Welcome aboard the _USAF Prometheus_."

"Thank you for having us Colonel." went Ozpin from beside him. A glance showed he was standing up as straight as he could manage, gripping his cane tightly. Behind Pendergast a blonde woman in a similar uniform approached, stopping beside him to copy his pose. At the sight of her, Ozpin nodded warmly. "Major Carter."

"Headmaster Ozpin, welcome. I'll presume you are General Ironwood?" she formally asked, the discipline evident in her body language.

"That's right Major, I'm..." Ironwood faced an unexpected problem at precisely the wrong time: his right arm wasn't responding. Despite his silent urging, the limb refused to cooperate. Suppressing a groan at the untimely malfunction, he held out his left hand instead. Her grip was strong, giving three restrained shakes before letting go. "Thank you for having us."

"You're welcome General. Now, I must ask if you were briefed on the circumstances." Major Carter waited expectantly on his reply, either not noticing or choosing to disregard his hesitation; he had a gut feeling it was the latter.

"I'm afraid not. In fact." he glanced around the cramped room, noting uniformed men and women going about their unknown tasks in front of banks of computers. He was aware of the glass behind him, but eschewed the view outside in favor of his immediate surroundings. "Where are we exactly? And how did we get here?"

"General, I'll leave the task of filling you in to Major Carter." Pendergast said neutrally. "But to answer your first question, look behind you." he finished with a gesture, walking off without further word. Frowning, Ironwood turned around at the same time as Ozpin.

Outside the glass was a black sky, speckled by countless tiny dots of light. But the sky wasn't the only thing either man could see; taking up a third of the glass was a blue and white sphere, covered by patches of brown and green. At first Ironwood thought the patches were random, but as he looked closer, he noted the one in the center seemed familiar. The pattern scratched at his memory, on and on until it suddenly clicked.

"T-that's Sanus." he spoke, internally flinching at his stutter.

"My my, isn't this a sight." Ozpin said quietly, a soft smile on his features.

Carter cleared her throat, catching their attentions. "Its an amazing view, isn't it? I'll admit, the first time I traveled to space I was a little too occupied to fully appreciate it."

"So, we really are in space." Ironwood shook his head in disbelief, the question of his malfunctioning arm answered in a way he never expected. A pertinent thought caused him to snap his head to Ozpin, unsettled curiosity in his eyes.

"I just discovered all this a few days ago myself. One of the first things I did was contact you." he spoke neutrally.

"Anyway sirs, if you'll follow me." Carter gestured to them, taking off in a sedate walk. Ironwood's first impulse to clasp his arms failed miserably, and he quietly groaned. Fortunately for his dignity, he could still walk, albeit with a sluggish pace. For Ozpin, his cane tapped on the bulkhead with every step he took, the man's progress slow yet inexorable.

Glancing over the various terminals, Ironwood observed the bulky machines with puzzlement. He would assume a nation advanced enough to build a functioning spaceship would have better equipment than this, yet the low resolution computers (without so much as a basic hologram) looked to be decades behind the average warship he visited a couple hours earlier. He even recognized a distinctive clack of a physical keyboard used by one crewman, a noise he hadn't heard for many years.

The same went for the large table display Carter led them to, the surface showing a decent quality map. Letting himself examine it for a moment, he felt his breath catch when he spotted the incoming Atlas forces on Vale's periphery. In a few second's time he thought of many ways something as banal as their god view map could be used, none of them for good.

Preoccupied as he was, Ironwood didn't miss Ozpin speaking, "Doctor Jackson, good to see you again."

Straightening himself up again, he discovered a bespectacled man standing on the other side of the table nodding to them. Short haired and clad in the same uniform style as the other crew, he didn't appear extraordinary at a glance. Upon closer inspection however, he noted the man looked and carried himself in a different way than the others. More relaxed, less stringent, but he kept a recognizable hardness in his form.

"General Ironwood, welcome." Jackson greeted, reaching out to shake. This time the General used his left, although the discomfort of using the wrong hand was impossible to dislodge. Fortunately his grip was just as brief as Carter's, lasting a few shakes before he withdrew.

"Thank you Doctor Jackson. I must say, I'm... I'm genuinely shocked by all of this." Ironwood admitted carefully, receiving sympathetic nods from the two.

"I am as well. All the same, thank you for the invitation." Ozpin said, briefly sweeping his eyes around. "May I inquire about the absence of Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c?"

"The Colonel is busy with his own tasks, I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to explain the details. Teal'c is currently assisting him however." Carter briefly explained, for some reason evasive. Jackson's sidelong glance at the other end of the bridge didn't help.

"So." the bespectacled doctor clapped, forcing the look to vanish. "I'll give a quick recap for General Ironwood's sake, just so we're up to speed."

He nodded in agreement. "Go ahead."

00000

...

00000

 _Ninety minutes later..._

"And here we are." Carter announced, leading the party of four out of the cramped corridors and into a seemingly cavernous space. "Welcome to the hangar."

With Daniel following at the tail, the Major led the Remnant natives throughout the vessel. Its sheer size was hard to judge from the inside, due in no small part to the narrow halls filled with uniformed personnel. Claustrophobia came quickly, and stayed throughout their obviously restricted exploration. On the last leg of the tour, she led them to the single most open area aboard the _Prometheus_.

"Quite impressive." Ozpin commented, his cane tapping on the floor as he moved inside. After him trotted Ironwood, the General still numb from the overwhelming explanation he received earlier. He paid attention as best as he could, but the truth was the man still coming to terms with the revelations they gave him. The detail of how utterly helpless his world truly was bit deeper than anything else, and he knew already he was going to lose sleep for the indefinite future.

The hangar was far from empty; aside from dozens of crewmen, there were two sets of four aircraft neither Remnant native had ever seen before, held securely in separate bays. The craft were strange, with large swept forward wings connecting to a smooth block. Two engine intakes could be seen in the front, while a small glass covered canopy rested on the top. It looked sleek and aerodynamic, giving little sign of being capable of vertical take off and landing.

"This room is the launch bay for the F302 fighter-interceptor squadron the _Prometheus_ carries." Carter waved a hand at the runway-like ramp in the center. "The ship is designed to transport and launch up to eight of the three'oh'twos at any given time. If necessary, the hangar can be used to move other craft, such as a Goa'uld transport ship."

Although the subject matter was Ironwood's specialty, it was Ozpin who was more interested in the goings on around them. Approaching the first one, he noted what looked like stubby gun ports poked out the front, while a rack of missiles were latched on underneath. Based on Carter's explanation and his own limited knowledge of similar weapons, the F302 seemed purpose built for wresting control of the skies away from whatever made an enemy of Earth.

By accident he caught a glimpse of someone ducking out of sight on the other side of the aircraft, making him call out, "Colonel O'Neill, there you are."

Underneath the wing, the pair of legs he recognized half tripped. The legs bent down before the owner started to plod into view, reluctantly straightening up. Ozpin patiently rested on his cane as O'Neill seemed to slink into his sight, the man appearing to be fighting back a pained grimace.

"Uh, hi Ozpin." O'Neill reluctantly greeted, stopping an arms length away.

Ignoring the informality, Ozpin nodded as the other three approached. "I hope I didn't interrupt your task, I can assume you are quite busy." While Ironwood was still quiet, Carter and Jackson stifled a cough.

"Yeah, I was inspecting the fighters to see if everything's alright. Turns out its all A-okay." O'Neill said glumly, letting out a resigned sigh. "So, what'd you think of the tour?"

"Most informative. I must say, this vessel is a marvel." he replied, shifting as Ironwood cleared his throat.

O'Neill shifted in the presence of the General, with the latter beginning to hold his hand behind his back until he forcibly stopped himself. Though the Earth born Colonel was still politely respectful, there was an edge to his posture the headmaster recognized. Interrupting the greet was his first thought, but he had the feeling this needed to happen sooner or later.

"Colonel O'Neill I presume?" the Atlesian greeted, mustering a smile as he held out a hand. "I'm General James Ironwood. I've heard quite a bit about you."

"Nice to meet you General." O'Neill said neutrally, his eyes darting behind the man towards his teammates. There was a noticeable change in his body language when he let go, like he was trying to hide his discomfort at something.

"These F302s seem quite impressive." Ironwood said conversationally, gesturing at the craft.

"Yep." O'Neill replied, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

Nonplussed, Ironwood nevertheless continued. "Have you flown one of these before?"

"Oh yeah, a few occasions. I don't do it full time, not enough hours in the day." he shrugged nonchalantly.

"I see." the Atlesian said softly, his expression darkening. "If I may be so bold, what's it like flying one?"

"Pretty cool, it just zooms on by." O'Neill theatrically swept his hand with the comment, while everyone else stood by mutedly. Suddenly grinning, he snapped his fingers. "Hang on."

Twisting around, O'Neill let out a shrill whistle. The noise made a crewman pop his head out of the open cockpit, alerted curiosity on his expression. In return the Colonel waved his arm, a cue for the man clad in a jumpsuit to crawl out to roughly land on the floor, briefly recovering before he strolled over. Giving the officer a quick salute, the crewman presented himself to the guests.

"Headmaster Ozpin, General Ironwood." O'Neill's introduction caused the crewman, a short haired man in his late thirties, to visibly stiffen. "I want you to meet Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, he's the wing commander of the three'oh'two squadron we got on board. Say hi Mitchell."

The man shuddered before he stuck his hand out, Ozpin electing to shake first. "Pleasure to meet you sirs." Mitchell greeted carefully, possessing a weird twang to his speech.

As O'Neill grinned at his sullen teammates, Ironwood took the lead. "You're in command of the squadron of F302s aboard this ship?"

"Yes sir. Actually, I'm filling in for the wing leader on this mission. Normally I run a small squadron for Earth defense, but the ship's usual commander came down with the flu a week ago. Gotta say, its really something to be way out here like this." Mitchell glanced at his boots when he finished, wearing a sheepish smile.

"I see. So, how does it handle?" the General asked interestedly.

"Like a dream sir." the Colonel replied, taking a second to look over his craft. "It banks faster and smoother than any other bird I've ever flown, and the climb speed is just nuts. And even though it zooms at seven or eight thousand klicks per hour, you hardly feel the pull. Lets not forget flying out of atmo, that's a rush by itself. Took some getting used to I admit."

Turning away, Ozpin made it two paces before he stopped. "May I?"

"Sure, just stay away from the engines. The maintenance guys don't like it when someone bothers them while they're working." Mitchell warned with a wave.

While a clearly awed Ironwood began to ask Mitchell questions, Ozpin's cane tapped on the floor as he approached. Although there were a few other personnel busy around the F302, none spared him a glance even as he came right up to the fighter. A feeling of powerful curiosity welled within the old headmaster, a sensation he hadn't felt in a long time. A smile graced his features when he reached out to run a hand over the black hull; the smooth metal felt strange to him, the texture not quite matching up to anything he knew of. After a moment of thought, he decided it felt truly otherworldly.

"Yep, its real." O'Neill commented from right behind him, having crept up while the headmaster was occupied.

Lowering his hand, Ozpin let his eyes roam over the F302. "It certainly is. However, I noticed that it feels new."

"Yeah, production of these things just started a year ago. I'm wondering how they'll handle when they start getting long in the tooth." O'Neill asked distantly, looking over the F302 himself.

"There's only one way to tell I suppose." Ozpin did the same, resting both of his hands on his cane. "Say, Colonel..."

"What's up?" he took a step closer, wearing an expression of intrigue.

The headmaster turned his head to O'Neill, adopting the faintest of smiles. "I'd like to ride in one."

"Say what?" he questioned immediately, blinking rapidly.

"I would like to ride in this craft for a short while, to see what its like." Ozpin elaborated as he turned to face him.

O'Neill raised a brow. "Is this a secret test of character thing? I don't like those, they never give straight answers."

"If you wish to look at it like that, you may. But my request is genuine." he replied.

"Okay, so just to be clear. You, want to ride shotgun in that." he pointed towards the fighter. "When it goes out there." his hand jerked over, pointing towards the end of the hangar. "Out in space. You know, the empty place that can kill you in a few seconds if something goes wrong. You wanna do all that, on your own free will."

"Yes." Ozpin answered simply, observing how O'Neill's arm went limp. "I'd imagine you've done riskier things over the course of your career."

"Yeah, but that's me. If I kick the bucket I'll have a few weeping friends at my funeral, and then they'll divvy up my stuff. Minimal fuss, minimal trouble. You're not like that though. You have a country to run, don't you?" O'Neill questioned flatly.

"School, but I understand your meaning. Need I remind you O'Neill, your people came to me seeking friendship. You're trying to woo me into agreeing to a trade agreement, among other things." Ozpin allowed a small grin on his features when he finished. A glance towards the others showed Carter had joined the conversation between Mitchell and Ironwood, although Jackson was giving the two of them a suspicious look.

O'Neill adopted a smirk as he crossed his arms. "And people give me flak for getting creative on the job. You know this counts as corruption, right?"

"In a manner of speaking." Ozpin hedged. "To be quite frank, when will I get another opportunity like this? Its a once in a lifetime chance to both gain an understanding of the technology you wield, and how difficult it may be to teach prospective students of my own world to embark on this journey."

"Why can't you just say you wanna go for a ride on the space plane?" O'Neill jokingly asked.

"It's undignified for a man of my position to make such a request." Ozpin said with gravitas, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards.

"Whatever you say." O'Neill rolled his eyes as he turned to shout, "Hey Mitchell!"

Breaking off the conversation mid-sentence, the man in question left a befuddled Ironwood behind to jog over. Although still respectful, Mitchell showed some curiosity while he stood at attention. "Sir?"

"Which of these birds are flyable right now?" O'Neill asked, smiling dangerously.

"Um, Blue Seven and Blue Four are down with some mechanical trouble, but the rest are ready to go sir." Mitchell answered hesitantly.

O'Neill grinned. "Perfect. Prep two of them, we're taking this guy on a trip."

"Sir." Mitchell said automatically, comprehension dawning on his expression.

"Don't worry about the paperwork, I'll cover it this time." the Colonel waved off, a flash of glumness interrupting his otherwise childlike enthusiasm. "Pick one and get mister Oz here strapped in. I'll go break the news." he commanded as he cheerfully marched to his team.

Mitchell coughed into his fist, while Ozpin settled an expectant look upon him. "Um, alrighty then. Follow me." he spoke with a lackluster wave.

Peripherally aware of the shocked conflagration O'Neill started, Ozpin trotted after the pilot, heading to the F302 one berth over. Briefly looking over the seemingly identical craft, the headmaster wondered how he was going to get onboard until a crewman arrived, pushing a ladder up to the side. Nodding appreciatively towards the stranger, Ozpin let Mitchell swiftly climb up into place, waiting until he was securely perched to wave the Remnant native up.

Sucking in a breath, Ozpin stifled a groan as he ascended the short ladder. If not for his crippled leg, he would've covered the short climb in an instant; as it was, he was forced to hold the defective limb a short distance away from the rest of him while he gripped tightly. The end result was him almost hopping up the ladder a rung at a time, a grunt escaping him with every step. Fortunately for his dignity he didn't hear a single laugh, and Mitchell showed only sympathy.

"You okay old timer?" he asked, holding out a hand.

Giving the limb a stare, Ozpin reluctantly took the offer, letting the younger man tug him up the last of the journey. "My leg may be crippled, but I am hardly infirm." he replied, unexpectedly getting a short chuckle from the man.

"You sound just like my dad. He lost both his legs in an accident, but he didn't let that stop him." Mitchell shook his head while guiding Ozpin into the cramped cockpit, using the headmaster's cane to help support him.

"What kind of accident?" he asked conversationally, landing on the well padded seat harder than he wished. After maneuvering in place he found a perfect nook to slide his cane into, within arms reach as well.

"Test pilot. His fiftieth flight, and precisely the third time something went wrong. My dad was really lucky that day." he answered, perching on the rim to gesture towards his sides. Frowning for a moment, Ozpin searched until he found a few straps, and once he had them raised Mitchell snagged them to cross over his chest. Now understanding, he located the others for him, allowing the pilot to latch them in place. "There we go, tell me when."

Pulling on another strap, the bonds tightened over Ozpin's chest, winkling his clothes until he grimaced. "Good."

Retracting back, Mitchell rooted around the front seat until he produced an encompassing helmet. Sighing, the headmaster took his spectacles off to set in his lap. While he slid the thick helmet over his normally ruffled hair, the pilot inquired, "If you don't mind me askin, what happened to your leg?"

"A rather unpleasant woman stabbed me with a sword." Ozpin answered once the helmet was firmly wrapped around his skull, needing a second to adjust it to a comfortable place. That accomplished, he finally noticed Mitchell staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Seriously?"

Placing his glasses back on, Ozpin located a couple more straps dangling from the helmet. This time he did the latch himself. "Yes. I confess my survival came down to fortunate timing."

"Woah." Mitchell shook his head, a bemused look on his face. "And I thought my luck with women was bad." Exhaling, he tapped the side of the hemet. "Alright, first switch here is off, the next is command net so everybody in the wing can hear you, and the last is closed link, between you and the guy in front only. Okay?"

"I understand." Ozpin replied, briefly feeling the small knob the man indicated. At first he was inclined to dismiss the small machine's simplicity, but as he thought it over he realized the point; with the F302's purpose, burdening the pilots with a complex device could distract them at a critical moment. Without equipment like what the Atlesian military possessed, simpler meant better.

"Alright. Normally the crew chief handles this part, but I think I did a decent job here." Mitchell commented.

A second later a voice from the F302's side bellowed out. "Mitchell! Move your butt, I'm flyin this one!"

Sighing, he gave Ozpin one more sympathetic look. "Good luck old timer."

Seconds after he climbed down, O'Neill all but scrambled up to the cockpit. His dash to the front seat was paused, the greying Colonel checking over the headmaster. "You good?"

"I believe so." Ozpin replied, testing his restraints. The last thing O'Neill did was grab something from the front seat, a small paper bag he tossed on his lap. He quickly deduced its purpose. "I don't get airsick."

"Just in case. Alright, let's roll." O'Neill concluded by hopping in the seat, efficiently readying himself. As the canopy began to lower, Ozpin felt the F302 begin to move out of its berth and onto the runway. Just before it sealed shut with a hiss, he thought he heard an indignant shout from Daniel.

Flicking his comm piece to the two way line, Ozpin braced himself. Glancing out, he noticed the crewmen and the guests scrambling towards the exits, flashing lights on the walls evidently giving them the cue to leave. He was strapped in too tightly to tell for sure, but he was certain he saw another F302 rolling into place as well. A low whine built up around him, likely the engines spooling up. His breath caught when the bay door slowly opened, causing a sequence of quiet pops from the canopy.

"And away..." O'Neill mumbled as the whine grew in pitch, a weird shudder coming from the air itself. "We go." Without warning the F302 shot forward, blasting out the exit and into space.

For a moment Ozpin saw little beyond a black void, speckled by innumerable tiny lights. It was like a moonless night, but starker than any sky he had ever seen. Curious, he raised a hand to drop it; there was a slight pull on his limb, nothing like what he expected a space worthy fighter craft to be like. If he didn't know any better, he would think he was in a particularly uncomfortable car.

"This is strange." Ozpin commented.

"You mean the part where you're not mashed against your seat?" O'Neill asked easily. "This thing has these toys called inertial dampeners. Without em, we'd be mush at these velocities."

"I... see..." he murmured.

The many lights swerved, becoming tiny blurs as O'Neill banked the craft. When the F302 straightened out, Ozpin spotted a small grey lump blissfully hanging in the sky. It grew larger by the second, allowing him to pick out details. A ram like prow, twin nacelles hugging the sides, and a blocky tower were some of the things he identified, with more and more ports and spots on the hull the closer they got to it. Only once the F302 breezed by the side did Ozpin discover blocky writing printed on the hull.

 _USAF Prometheus._

"She's a beauty, ain't she?" O'Neill's voice crackled in his ear, although he could hear him normally as well.

Ozpin was inclined to disagree, but at the moment he had trouble locating his voice. Fortunately for his sake the radio cracked on its own, announcing a new addition to the network.

" _Colonel O'Neill._ " growled Pendergast, unmistakably furious. " _What do you think you're doing?_ "

"Relax Colonel, just taking the teacher on a cruise around the block. We'll be back in sixty mikes or less. And before you get really upset, I brought Mitchell with me. You there?" O'Neill asked over the line.

" _Copy Blue Three, this is Blue One. Shaft is standing by._ " Mitchell's staticky voice responded.

" _Colonel..._ " Pendergast sounded even more upset than before.

"Sixty mikes Chariot, start counting. See you in a bit." O'Neill clicked the line off, turning the F302 around towards the brilliant blue and green orb. "So my dear, where would you like to go for our date?"

"I don't tread that path O'Neill, but I respect your life choices." Ozpin answered, feeling for his cane.

"That was a joke." O'Neill muttered. "Screw it, I'm gonna do some low flybys. Time to introduce the people down there to UFOs." With that, the F302 dove towards Remnant.


	18. Dealing with problems

The courtyard of Beacon was never empty during the day. An acknowledged facet of day-to-day events almost since the Academy's founding, it was practically unheard of for anyone to not be out and about for whatever reason. Even the damage inflicted eight months ago failed to change that fact, with some students taking advantage of the lingering debris to find remote areas to study, meet with friends, or just escape from the stress for a short while.

It was here that a young woman found herself, avoiding students and passerby's alike on her chosen direction. She stuck to the lesser used walkways, avoiding eye contact with whomever she passed. From a tall armored young man with a massive sword strapped to his back to a pair of giggling twins, she made eye contact with no one. A few gave her curious (or suspicious) looks, owing to her hidden identity, as well as the bow and quiver hanging off her back.

Her wandering wasn't random. The hooded woman's feet took her to the side of an old tree, where she took a moment to run a gloved hand down the trunk. Tracing around, she located a set of old etched in the wood, carved by a knife long ago. She felt the names painstakingly marked in fine print, a far cry from the lazy etches other students made in the intervening years. The start of a smile vanished when she felt along a ragged trough, one which wasn't there when she saw it last.

Circling around, she took note of the cylinder like gouge in the trunk, leaving behind a smoothed wall of splintered wood. For a second her irises glowed, her semblance plying through her knowledge to identify the cause.

"Gryphon claws." Eliane said in a near whisper, standing back.

Whatever fond memories the woman was about to recall fled back into the recesses of her mind, to remain there until something dragged them out again. For a moment she wondered if the blow to the tree erased the event from history, or if it only removed a piece of evidence to its existence. But if the event existed only in her memory, did that mean it no longer-

"Hang on."

In the span of a second she whipped herself around, a hand on her bow ready to draw. Only upon realizing the lack of hostility did she stop herself, taking a short breath as she let go. Standing up straight, she glanced over the older man standing a couple meters away, as he did the same.

"Can it be?" he asked, raising his brow as he faced her fully. It took the young woman only a second to realize the wild haired professor's identity; his white lab coat was a poor match for the safari outfit he wore underneath, but she knew he wouldn't have it any other way. A thermos clutched by his side completed the image of one of her favorite non family individuals in all of Remnant.

Pulling her hood off, she briefly shook her head to get a clump of hair out of her vision. "Doctor, its been far too long."

"Eliane?" Professor Bartholomew Oobleck exclaimed, his spectacles glinting in the sunlight as a massive grin split his features."Is this really the one and only Eliane before me?"

A rare smile graced her features, which shrank when he briefly came closer with his arms outstretched. Just as she backed up a step, Oobleck suddenly aborted the move. He dropped his hands, briefly taking a swig from his treasured thermos to steady himself.

"My apologies, forgot about your contact aversion. Anyway." the hyperactive man perked up, meeting the young woman's reluctant posture. "So, what brings my favorite student back to Beacon? How's your team dear?"

"Doing well the last I checked, although we don't communicate often anymore." the graduated huntress said, deliberately avoiding looking directly at his face. While it gave her the chance to look around the scarred grounds, she felt unusually anxious at avoiding eye contact with him.

"Oh, that's a shame. Personally I thought ICED had so much potential, even with your communication problems. So this means you're running solo these days?" Oobleck asked cheerfully, apparently uncaring of her attitude. Out of all the people she met during her time at Beacon, he alone never judged her for acting strange.

"I am. I was on my way to Mistral actually, heard news of a dangerous Grimm in the western regions. The bounty on it is rather high." she explained, not meeting his gaze.

Oobleck caught her cue, frowning in concern. "Is something the matter Eliane? I'm seeing that little avoidance thing you used to do, it popped up whenever your teammates did something wrong."

"Its... family trouble Doctor. I don't want to talk about it." she tapped her boots on the ground, clenching then unclenching her fists at the same time.

"Hmm." Obbleck grunted, bringing up a hand to massage his chin. "I happen to recall numerous counseling sessions between you and I about talking through your problems rather than just bottling them up. Whatever became of that habit?"

"Ran out of people whom I could speak to." Eliane replied, sighing.

"Not quite, I'm right here after all. So Ellie, what's troubling you?" he clapped his hands on his elbows, waiting with an expectant look on his face.

Tipping her head back, Eliane closed her eyes and sighed. "Its... its about my brother."

"Go on." Oobleck carefully encouraged. He stood as still as he could, which wasn't much.

"He did something foolish, its something he shouldn't have done. I'm afraid that he was forced against his will, but he doesn't seem to under-" Eliane paused mid sentence, her pensive frown vanishing. Blinking once, she focused on the sky above her.

Raising a brow himself, Oobleck looked up as well, narrowing his vision to search. It took him a moment to realize it, but he heard a distant whine in the air, the familiar sound of an airship. It took the professor a few seconds to identify the source: a tiny but recognizable profile of a twin engine craft, heading directly towards the main tower. As they watched, it slowed to land on the VIP platform.

"Atlesian gunship." Eliane said softly, though the coldness in her tone was unmistakable.

Oobleck sighed, briefly taking a gulp from his thermos. "You still have that dire hatred of Atlas I see."

"Not Atlas directly Doctor, though I reserve plenty of ill will towards their leaders. I have no hard feelings towards their people." Eliane crisply explained, meeting his gaze for a moment.

"I admit some discomfort to having them around, but then again, Atlesian troops did play a non trivial role in helping to save Beacon during the battle. A few chaps I met afterwards..." Oobleck trailed off, sighing at the cold look in her eyes. "Alright, I'll drop it. So, about your brother."

Like a switch, her attitude returned to uneasy worry. "I spoke to him yesterday. I..." she sighed, rubbing her shoulder. "I think I hurt him. I didn't want to insult him, but I was just so confused. Why would he choose that path?"

"I see." Oobleck spoke, frowning. "If you did hurt him without meaning to, the first thing you should do is go apologize. He grew up with you, so I'd imagine he'd understand if it were just a mistake on your end." he explained, watching her nod. "Just remember the lessons I taught you: clear and concise, no place for error to grab ahold of. And if he's fallen in with some unsavory sort of people, just let me know. I'll straighten him out myself if I have to."

Eliane sighed, nodding to her favorite professor. "Thank you Doctor Oobleck. I didn't mean to take up your time." she began, only for him to wave her off.

"Think nothing of it dear. I'm happy to help any of my current or former pupils, doubly so for one of my favorite students of my entire teaching career. Now run along, say sorry to your brother and whack him upside the head, no better way to knock some sense into someone's skull." Oobleck gestured grandly, with a sizable grin on his features. "Go get em."

Eliane cleared her throat, gesturing in the opposite direction as him. "He's in the guest dorms."

"Oh." Oobleck said, standing up straight and tugging on his coat. "My point stands. Safe travels Eliane."

"Thank you Doctor Oobleck, and safe travels to you too." Eliane mustered a weak smile to go with her curtsey, tugging up her hood once he left her sight.

The professor watched her go for a moment, enjoying the bliss of a job well done.

"Stay safe my favorite problem child, and I hope you don't get yourself escorted off the grounds." he murmured, taking another swig. With mounting concern, he realized his thermos was down to dregs. "Ah, not good. Should've expected this though, Miss Arc always upped my coffee needs."

Nodding as he recalled the sheer challenge of handling his former student, Oobleck smiled at the creative ways he found to deal with her many problems. One thing was for sure, he was ready for the next one of her that would come his way.

"Arc... wait..." his smile vanished. In a flash Oobleck had his scroll out, accessing the Academy database. Flying through the authorization protocols, he went for the old records, specifically hitting up student files. While one passed by him, he ignored their leery gaze in favor of examining the data on his screen. When he found it, he mumbled, "Oh, oh my. No wonder his name seemed familiar back then. How did I miss that?"

Cutting the link, he then called his immediate superior in the school hierarchy. Drumming his fingers as he fidgeted, he cursed under his breath until the line connected.

" _Yes Doctor? I'm quite busy this minute, external affairs._ "

"Glynda, glad you you could answer my call. It's important." Oobleck spoke so fast, his words blended together. "I have strong reason to believe a missing student has turned up, and may be in Beacon as we speak."

The line was silent for several seconds. " _You don't say._ "

Passing through the dorm entrance, Eliane briefly took note of the new decorations before she moved on. She stayed to one side of the hallway, letting any students she came across pass her easily, no matter how they responded to her presence. Pushing her worry aside as she strode further into the building, she began mumbling under her breath.

"I'm sorry about what I said, can we talk about it?" she spoke, too softly for others to hear. Even faunus would have trouble keeping track of her murmuring, never mind a human. It didn't matter to the woman, she clung to the repeating phrase like a talisman.

After crossing through into the unassuming threshold, Eliane noticed a sharp decline in student traffic. Idly checking the far fewer 'Area Closed' signs in this part of the building, she didn't become aware of her slowing pace for a long minute. Only once she hit the end if the hallway did she stop, taking a deep breath as she turned around. This time she listened intently for any voices coming from the doors, searching for any familiar ones. The lack of people in the section made her task much easier.

When a door swung open on its own, she nearly let it smack her in the face. Only a quick jerk saved her from injury, the woman needing a second to right herself.

"Alright, six'oh'clock at the tram, don't be late!"

Picking up, Eliane locked her gaze on the young woman stepping out with her hand on the wood door, pushing it shut behind her. Attaching a name to the fellow blonde clad in leather took a second, the same amount of time it took for her to realize there was someone outside. She jumped reflexively, her gauntlets locking in place as she yanked up a fist.

"Wait." Yang said, recognition flashing before her eyes. While she relaxed her stance, a sour look came over her. "Its _you_."

"Hello Yang Xiao Long." Eliane greeted neutrally, tracking the blonde's right first rather than her expression, noting the status of her fingers. Yang didn't retract the gauntlet until several seconds later, showing plenty of reluctance in doing so. As she crossed her arms over her chest, the older huntress pulled off her hood and cleared her throat. "Is Jaune in there?"

A grunt left Yang's pursed lips, followed by her creaking the door open to glance inside. "Jaune, your sisters' here."

While she turned back forward, she heard multiple voices from inside, which quickly lowered in tone. Yang then shoved the door forward so to allow her access. But as Eliane moved towards the entrance, she stuck an arm in her way.

"Just so we're clear, I don't like it when someone tells off my friends. You pull something like yesterday, I'm gonna knock your teeth out. Clear?" Yang told her, her lilac gaze narrowed.

"If I hurt you yesterday, I apologize. I overreacted, but I came here to make amends." she replied, temporarily matching her gaze.

Yang kept the hard stare for a moment, although she dropped her arm. "You are just dense, you know that?"

"You are not the first to tell me this, and I'm certain you won't be the last." Eliane turned to walk inside, hearing a low huff from the blonde.

Whatever feelings of goodwill in the room evaporated the moment she came into view, the change so stark even she could notice it. Seven pairs of eyes turned from whatever they were doing to focus on her, their combined staring enough to halt her in her tracks. A shiver crawled up her spine, but she kept herself from turning to leave by force of will. It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop, and the hostility in the air was enough to act as Grimm bait.

Seeking out her brother first, Eliane spotted Jaune sitting on one of the beds, with Ruby beside him. Nearby, Nora was by Ren and Blake at a desk, a scroll in the middle of the trio as they watched something. Lastly, Weiss and Pyrrha were on the bed next to the trio, with a large textbook set up between them. None of the occupants were armed, though she could see many weapons placed about nearby their owners.

Abruptly coughing, Jaune stood up and smoothed out his unarmored hoodie. "Um, hi Ellie."

"Hello Jaune." Eliane rolled her shoulders, fighting the blush in her cheeks.

After a moment of silence, Ruby stood up to snag her scythe. "It's about time for me to leave anyway. So, I'll see you later?" she directed towards the blond.

"Yeah, I'll be free this evening." he replied, gathering a weak smile.

Weiss stood up next, smoothing out her dress. "Thanks for the feedback, this presentation has been bothering me for a while."

"You're welcome. To be honest though, I should be thanking you. I have a good jump off point for catching up." Pyrrha replied, standing up to grab both her and the white haired girl's weapons, handing off the rapier before slinging her shield around. "I'm heading down to the sparring arena, want to join me later?"

"Sure, I could use something to unwind after this." she agreed, stuffing the textbook into a bag before slinging it over her shoulder, taking a moment to move her rapier to a comfortable spot.

"Great. Because, well, I need the practice." she admitted bashfully, likewise playing with her javelin's position.

As the two girls passed by, Eliane could feel their eyes on her. Neither one said anything, but she could tell they didn't need to.

"Anyway, I have some work to do myself, so I'm off too. I'll see you guys later." Blake pocketed the scroll and grabbed her slab like sword, taking her time with attaching the weapon to her back. Nora and Ren had none of her fanfare, grabbing then attaching their respective weapons to carry.

That done, the orange haired girl strode away with a bounce to her step while the sable haired young man was sedate with his movements. Though the former was smiling, she said nothing to the visitor while she passed her by. The latter was usually taciturn anyway, so it wasn't unusual for him to be quiet. Following them, the faunus was likewise silent, her golden eyes roaming up and down her appearance for as long as she was in sight.

Outside the door, Nora snapped her fingers and called out. "Hey Pyrrha, forgot to ask. We're heading to Morty's to pick up some ammo, want me to get some for you?"

"You don't have to, I just need to find time to get back to Vale." the redhead replied from out of her vision.

"I call that a yes. Box of seven-sevens work?" she asked, moving out of her view.

A sigh met her. "Remind me and I'll pay you back later."

"Hey, while you're there, you mind grabbing some ten mils for me too? I'll pay you back of course." Blake called out as well.

"Sure!" Nora cheerfully agreed.

Turning back around, Eliane noted Ruby still standing where she was, the red toned girl averting her eyes when she moved. She sighed, glancing back to Jaune. "If something happens, call me okay?"

"Yeah. See you later." he nodded, his own gaze falling.

Eliane tracked Ruby as she walked past her, the younger girl hesitating in the frame. With a final breath she closed the door, the lock clicking shut. That last sound left the Arc siblings alone in the dorm room, having enough privacy to get things sorted out.

Outside Ruby paused, listening for the sounds of violence. Straining as hard as she could, the red huntress waited for the first hint of things going wrong.

"Hey, you coming?" Weiss asked insistently, pausing a couple meters away. A disappointed huff left Ruby as she turned away, lackadaisically catching up to the walking girl's side.

Noticing her leaders unease, Weiss sighed. "That's two in under a week."

"Two what?" she asked back, looking over her shoulder.

"Two people you met and really didn't like. You got along with Winter better than her, and she treated you like a pet she didn't want in the room." she explained, unable to stop herself from twisting around too.

"It's..." Ruby slumped. "At least Smith was polite. I think he's a nice guy in the end, he's just, um, how would you describe him?"

"Impersonal for starters. I'd probably add exacting and gruff too. Still, I believe you're right. Smith did seem like a good man to me, he's just overly serious. Maybe Eliane is the same way." Weiss suggested.

"Maybe. Just, I dunno. There's something about her I just don't like." Ruby shook her head, frowning.

Weiss took another breath, deciding to switch topics. "You mind if I see the cheat sheet Nora gave you?"

"Oh, yeah." Ruby whipped out her scroll, sending a quick message. Pulling out her own, the heiress downloaded the image she sent her, scanning over the rows of words.

"Let's see..." Weiss had a small grin as she read. "Zulu, wonder that is. Yankee. Yang the Yankee, how does that sound?" she turned for the question, seeing the red huntress mull on the idea. "Nice ring to it. X-ray, real creative. And after..."

Ruby kept going for a few steps, suddenly freezing when she realized her friend halted. Slowly turning around, she cringed at the tight expression the white haired girl possessed, how she was barely stopping herself from exploding.

"Um, you okay?" she asked nervously, for a moment fearing the return of that frightening empty stare.

"Whiskey. W on this list is Whiskey." Weiss turned her indignant countenance towards her wincing leader. "My name corresponds to _liquor_. Blake is Bravo, Yang has Yankee, you're Romeo, and I get a type of alcohol. What gives?" she demanded. Ruby's apologetic shrug failed to help her mood.

Back in the room, Jaune let out a breath as he rubbed his hands. "You should sit down, we're gonna be here a while."

Sighing through her nostrils, Eliane lowered herself to the floor. Rather than sit down properly, she choose to rest on her knees, which made him sigh.

"You're safe here, so you don't need to get up right away." he told her gently, plopping down on the bed.

"I prefer this, its more comfortable." she replied, reaching around to take off her bow and quiver to set beside her. Next came her cloak, the woman folding it up before setting it down as well. As she worked the loop of her small carry bag, he rubbed his hands together.

"So." he said once she was finished, as relaxed as she was going to get.

"So." she repeated, tracking him.

"I'm guessing you're free for a while?" he asked, briefly cracking his neck.

"All day, and I rented a motel in Vale. What about you?" she replied, only moving intermittently.

"I had some plans for the evening, but those got canceled." he answered, casting a look towards the window.

"I overheard Yang mention a meeting at six." she told him. The young woman began to scan the room, but his sigh brought her gaze forward.

"It's a girls night she's throwing, pretty much everybody except Ren and I are going. If you wanted, I could ask her if it was alright for you to tag along." Upon seeing a slight shake of her head, he huffed listlessly. "Yeah, I figured you wouldn't want to, but I thought I should ask. On the plus side, I'm free until tomorrow morning. Unless something comes up anyway."

"Good. Because we have a lot to discuss." Eliane reminded, watching Jaune drop his head for a moment.

Bringing his hands together, he forced himself to look at her face. "How about we start over? We'll just do this from the beginning, like yesterday didn't happen. Is that okay?"

"Very well." Eliane agreed, briefly inhaling. "Before we do though, I just want to say I'm sorry. I reflected on what I said after I left, and... and I realized I hurt you."

"Yeah, you did. But." Jaune held up a hand to stop her. "I have to say sorry too. I shouldn't have brought up the search and destroy incident, I knew that's a sore spot for you."

"Yes. So, from the beginning?" Eliane proposed.

"Yeah, the beginning." he sighed. "Um, how have you been?"

"Well. Haven't spoken with my old team for a while, but I hear they're doing good too." she replied, blank faced.

"What about Mom and Dad? Are they okay, I mean, they're probably bored out of their minds these days." Jaune asked, forcing some cheer as his hands flexed.

"Last I checked yes. Father is doing some guest teaching to a few of the Academies in the region." she reported, her eyes narrowing a minute degree. "I appreciate your concern, but I know you're stalling."

"Guilty." Jaune mumbled glumly. Glancing towards the closet, he wrung his hands together as he thought, all while she waited patiently. "I guess I should say for starters that it wasn't an easy choice, or a quick one for that matter. Its not like I took one look at the SGC and decided I wanted to be like them."

"SGC." Eliane repeated blankly.

"Um, quick terminology lesson. SGC is Stargate Command, they operate Earth's gate. Those are the guys I work for. There's a lot more to it, but that's the starting point. Okay? Am I being unclear?" he asked, showing some worry.

"No, I get it." Eliane nodded in understanding. "So why did you join them?"

"Ellie, you ever look up at the night sky, I mean really looked?" Jaune posed, gesturing upwards.

"Often, I use the stars to navigate at night." she replied, watching him wring his hands together.

He took a deep breath. "Let me rephrase that, have you ever looked up and wondered what was out there? Maybe thought there was someone just like you out there, doing what you're doing and thinking who else could be in the sky?"

"One of my old teammates did that, back when we were still together. I always thought she wasn't cut out to be a huntress, but I couldn't fault her for thinking big. I was never going to see anything like that with my own eyes though, so I didn't focus on it too much." Elaine explained, her expression flickering for a moment. "But, I do know what you mean. I just don't ascribe to it myself. Doesn't interest me."

Jaune nodded, his expression wrinkling. "You can spend a lifetime wondering, but in the end, it's all just wishful thinking." he took a breath, looking her in the eye. "I discovered what's really out there Ellie."

She tipped her head, her blue eyes focused on him.

"There's an alien race called the Goa'uld out there. They're parasites, they burrow inside of people to take them over. Anyone they don't turn into a host, they enslave, and if they don't do that, then the Goa'uld destroy them. They've been ruling the galaxy for thousands of years, its only in the past couple that's its started changing." he explained, his rising tone muted by her unchanging look. "It's because of Earth Ellie. They've been fighting the Goa'uld, and even though they're outclassed in every way, they're winning."

"And they convinced you to join their war." Eliane stated simply.

Rubbing his knuckles, Jaune smothered a sigh. "No. Their lead team gave my team and I shelter after we accidentally got stranded offworld, they were perfectly willing to let us stay in a safe place until they eventually found Remnant." he countered, his face hardening. "Pyrrha said yesterday it was her idea, she decided what the SGC was doing was too important to ignore, and talked the rest of us into helping them. The only way we could was by fighting their way."

"You couldn't contact the local Huntsman Academies? If the SGC was so generous, they would've consulted with them." Eliane replied flatly.

"There aren't academies like that on Earth or anywhere else, because there's no Grimm out there Ellie. Think about that, nothing but some wild animals in the woods. Can you imagine it?" he offered with a presenting wave, smiling hopefully.

This time, Eliane looked away with her brow wrinkled. "No Grimm..." shaking her head, she returned her gaze to Jaune. "So they don't have anything to act as a moral compass."

"Actually one of their creeds is civilian control of the military. They serve the people, not the otter way around. I know what you're thinking Ellie." he stopped her before she could interrupt. "But Earth isn't like the Great War era armies. They're..." his expression wrinkled for a moment. "They're not entirely clean, but the people who run the SGC aren't despots. They truly want to make the galaxy a better place."

"It doesn't change what they are. They lack the conscience to contest wrong decisions." Eliane countered, her flat voice dropping an octave.

"That's where you're wrong. There are a few bad sorts still there, but the good outweighs them by a huge margin. I would've never joined if they didn't show that." Jaune retorted testily.

"Surely you considered alternatives though. You could've done something to help Earth besides becoming another soulless cog in the machine." she protested, turning cold.

Jaune stared at her for a moment, before unexpectedly dropping his head. His sister raised a brow when she heard a quiet chuckle from him. When he peered up again, a mirthful smile was on his face.

"What?" she went in confusion.

"Sorry, um, I'm not laughing at you." he said quickly, holding up a placating hand. "It's, well..." he took a deep breath, his hair swaying with his weak shake. "You reminded me of something a while ago. Remember back home, it was, I dunno, eight years ago now? When Dad got you, me, and Soleil out to help with the garden? I know for sure it was before you left for Beacon."

She frowned for a moment. "I think I remember. He needed help with the new vegetables."

"Yeah, plus he wanted you to, well, 'socialize' out of the workshop." he raised his arms to curl two fingers from both hands, a grin on his face. "You and Soleil were sorting out the new vegetables, while Dad and I were planting them. Every time I filled in a hole, you'd come in behind me to dig it up. Remember that?"

"I do. The package called for five seeds per planting, and you kept putting in more. It was just wasteful." A small smile tugged at Elaine's features at the memory.

Jaune shrugged his shoulders weakly. "Yeah, thought they would help each other out. But do you remember what happened around noon?"

"An Atlas warship flew over town. Part of the patrol in the region." she recalled, her expression darkening.

"Exactly." he snapped his fingers before pointing at her. "I think you said the exact same thing back then. Just stood up, looked at the ship, and started ranting about how all the soldiers aboard were fleshy robots with no free will, who couldn't think for themselves if they tried. It came outta nowhere."

"I don't remember my specific wording..." Eliane frowned, tipping her head back.

"It was something like that though. Meanwhile the rest of us were watching, trying to keep from busting a gut. That was the hardest thing I ever did back then, 'cause I knew you didn't like being laughed at." Jaune recalled, smiling as he rolled his shoulders.

"I didn't think it was that funny then." she protested, softly indignant.

"Yeah, but that's because you went and swore at the ship, then Dad took you inside with the belt. One of the three major rule in the house, besides stay on our best behavior in the trophy room and don't wave guns around, and you went and broke it in front of him. And this was the same you who broke into everybody's diaries to cross out curses." he finished with a weak laugh.

Eliane huffed, her frown nowhere near as severe as a minute ago. "I explained it to everyone then, I was trying to stop them from getting in trouble. I fixed a swear you put on your homework by accident too."

"I remember. Was this close to getting sent home, and you saved me from getting the belt too. Did I ever pay you back for that?" he asked mirthfully, although his cheer was fading. He took a moment to scratch the back of his neck, his free hand smoothing out his pant leg.

"I don't believe so. But I didn't mind one way or the other." she said, giving a brief shake of her head. The half smile she sported was fading as well, the gears behind her sharp eyes turning. Suddenly she snapped her head to him, surprise ghosting across her features. "Wait a minute, you..."

"Misdirected you, yeah." Jaune admitted, rubbing his palms together. "I remember Mom used to do it every time you got upset, worked like a charm."

Elaine slumped her shoulders. "I didn't think you knew how."

"I didn't do a good job of it though. Mom would've had you going for half an hour, on the family history or your robotics courses, and by the end you'd be angry in the head but not the heart. Right now, you're still a little mad at me, I can tell." he said, tugging on his hoodie.

"I am yes. But then again, this is a more grievous matter than getting a test wrong, or dealing with bullying under my watch." she replied cooly.

Jaune sighed. "I know. When I found out the Air Force approved my enlistment, almost the first thing I thought was how furious you'd be once you heard the news. I know for sure Mom and Dad, everybody honestly, they're gonna be a little worried about what I did. I think once they knew the whole story though, they'd understand."

"I doubt that. But." Eliane took a moment to rub the back of her neck. "Maybe. Father doesn't like militaries any more than I do, but he's better at keeping it to himself. I think the fact you're alive would be good enough for them. It would mean your grave needs to be dug up though."

"Yeah, not looking forward to that part. I really was planning on visiting in person no matter what, but I wanted to have this whole mission under wraps first. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried though." Jaune admitted, rolling his shoulders while he examined the room. "But you know what they say, worrying is like paying a debt you don't owe."

Eliane raised a brow. "I've never heard that phrase before."

"Its, um, an old saying on Earth. Common wisdom there." he explained quickly, features briefly lighting up.

"I see." she said softly.

When her gaze turned from him, Jaune needed no special powers to know where she was looking. Preempting her, he rose from the creaking bed to trod over, picking up his sword from leaning against the desk. Just as he turned back to her, his features wrinkled in thought. Lighting up with excitement, he darted to the closet to yank the door open, all while she watched blankly.

"Here we go..." he murmured once he found what he wanted, coming around with several objects in his hands and a small smile. Once he returned to the bed, he set the sword and a rectangle shaped construct beside him as he plopped down. "I know you wanna check out Crocea Mors, but first, check these out."

"I want to examine the sword yes, since it left nicks on Pervenire's edges everywhere I blocked you. I've never seen anything cause that so quickly." Eliane replied, letting her eyes roam over the blue metal object he was presenting.

"Well?" Jaune prompted hopefully, holding the triple segmented thing he held with both hands, cupping the bottom portion in his palms. Her eyes were drawn to the top piece, which faintly resembled a snake.

Eliane looked from the object to him, her expression unchanged. "Its a weapon."

"Yeah, this things called a Zat. Its a gun." he explained, adjusting his fingers on the grip. "Wanna hold it?"

"I don't use guns." she said dryly, making his smile dip.

"I know Ellie, but c'mon. This is an alien weapon, aren't you the least bit curious?" Jaune prodded, his smile showing doubt.

Inhaling deeply, Eliane reached out to accept the Zat from him. Jaune left it in her hands, watching his sister turn it around as she examined the device. He didn't say anything, even as her irises began to softly glow; instead he clasped his hands together while he waited, letting her reach a conclusion at her own pace. Checking his watch, he was pleased to note her studying passed the minute mark. Jaune did flinch when she made it pop up, an electric whirr announcing it was ready. Fortunately she kept the end piece pointed towards the wall, not at either of them.

His faint hope and her intense examination came to an abrupt halt when the door swung open. Jaune snapped his head over as Eliane whipped around, on her feet in an instant.

"Um, sorry." Ruby said hesitantly, frozen in place with one hand the doorframe. "I, uh, forgot my backpack." she explained, pointing to a small carry bag on the desk.

"Oh, um, alright." Jaune sat back down, feeling a flush in his cheeks. Eliane lowered herself back to the same spot she previously rested on, uncurling her finger away from the trigger lever. Upon noticing, he loudly cleared his throat. "Ellie, can I have that back now?" he asked alarmingly, noting how Ruby had her eyes focused on the weapon.

The awkward moment over with, Ruby quickly strode to the desk to pick up the pack. As she swung it over her back, the red toned girl paused to give Jaune a concerned look. "Sorry for interrupting. Is it going okay?"

"So far, I think so. You think this is going well?" he turned to ask his sister.

"I'm not sure. We're not yelling or squabbling, so that's a good sign." Eliane replied, handing over the Zat rather than continuing. "I'm unsure what to make of this device, but I believe it to be some type of directed energy weapon. I'm curious to find out how the builder solved the power issue."

On her way to the door, Ruby halted to cough into her fist. "Yeah, not sure what he told you, but that thing is _really_ dangerous."

"Yeah, isn't that's the truth." Jaune collapsed the machine to set beside him. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna let a repeat of Yang's accident happen. Take it from me, it's not fun whatsoever."

"What do you mean?" Elaine asked, tracking the smaller girl until she reached the door.

"Remind me one of these days and I'll tell you about Zat Week." Jaune answered with a shudder.

Ruby made it to the exit before she stopped, placing a hand on the door and turning around.

"You know, I just thought of something. Why don't we take a little trip to the gate? Not go through it or anything." she quickly waved her hands in alarm. "I mean, just go check the place out. Show her it's there."

"I'm interested in seeing a Stargate with my own eyes." Eliane agreed, glancing towards her brother.

"Yeah, sure. Um, the whole gang or just us?" he asked.

As Eliane opened her mouth, Ruby said, "It's up to you. Yang and I have a test tomorrow, but I think Blake's free. Weiss is definitely free, but, you know." she shrugged, her expression flickering.

"Yeah, I get it. You mind asking her for me?" he inquired with a nod.

Ruby nodded back. "Sure. It'll be cool to see the gate again though, and its a lot closer than your apartment."

Without warning Jaune winced, like he was just stabbed. Cringing as it dawned on her, Ruby watched as Eliane swiveled over to look at him. "Apartment?"

"Um, I have to go." Ruby slammed the door shut and vanished into a cloud of rose petals, mumbling, "Sorry." under her breath the entire time.

00000

...

00000

" _Blue Three, I got a contact forty degrees left, how copy?_ " Mitchell's concerned voice crackled.

Sighing in resignation, O'Neill glanced at his radar display, noting the new blip on his screen. Their flight was going so well; the two F302s passed over the border of the neighboring country ten minutes ago, holding steady at Mach Five as they zoomed along. He could tell it was a nice day for many of the areas they passed over, excluding a lone thunderstorm they gave a wide berth to.

The Colonel had zero doubt they were spotted by all manner of people along their flight path, even though the _Prometheus_ directed them away from any large population centers. Being the cause of an Unknown Flying Object phenomenon was certainly an enjoyable experience, no matter how the rest of the day was going to turn out. It was almost worth the wads of paperwork and a furious Pendergast waiting for him.

"I see it Blue One, ground level object showing up on my display. Its either small or radar absorbent, can't tell from here. Whaddya say, sixteen, seventeen klicks out?" he responded, the outside briefly going all white as they passed through a cloud.

" _Affirmative. Chariot, do you read?_ " Mitchell checked with on high.

Looking over his shoulder, O'Neill asked, "This place a normal travel route?"

"I'm not sure where here is actually." Ozpin replied, looking remarkably comfortable in the backseat. "But I'm inclined to doubt your contact is manmade. International travelers tend to operate at much greater altitudes or run in convoys, oftentimes both."

"Gotcha." O'Neill said glumly, turning forward once more. The F302's nose dipped for a moment, the craft losing altitude until they were below the cloud layer.

He could see the terrain flashing underneath their craft; mountainous green as far as he could see, interspersed with several patches of winding blue. They were going too fast for him to see any definite features, which throttling the F302 down helped to fix. Spying an oncoming mountain, O'Neill banked to the side so to circle it, the pilot noting a few ruined buildings near the foliage covered peak.

" _Blue Flight, this is Chariot. Life signs are coming up negative on your location, but we're reading something nearby. We are unable to get a positive ID._ " the staticky voice of Pendergast reported, still showing faint anger in his tone.

"Copy Chariot. Mission timer is at..." O'Neill swiveled his eyes towards the dashboard clock. "Thirty five mikes and counting. Enough time to check it out."

" _Acknowledged. Blue Three, you have permission to investigate. If its in any way hostile, break off and return to orbit. Understood?_ " Pendergast crackled, emphasizing the last word.

"Copy, wish me luck. Blue Three out." O'Neill banked to the side, half his attention on the displays.

The world outside kept its blurry quality, but it grew less intense by the second. At the same time, the omnipresent whine of the engines was spiraling down to a low hum. It took several minutes for O'Neill to reach the equilibrium he wanted, just below the F302's stall speed. Perfect for sightseeing in his opinion. Banking one more time, he turned the fighter's nose towards the mountain again, following the blip on his screen.

O'Neill registered movement on the mountain that wasn't there a minute ago; for a second he wondered if he accidentally kicked off a rockslide or something, and he suddenly hoped there wasn't anyone in the way. Except he knew rockslides went downhill, and after a second of looking he saw that the moving contact was quite obviously going in the opposite direction. Whatever the thing was, it definitely had legs. Blinking, he suddenly realized Ozpin was leaning forward in his seat, the old man likely looking at the lanky object galloping up towards the top as well.

" _This is Blue One, we got a visual... what in the hell is that?_ "

As they passed the mountain, O'Neill saw it. The enormous black thing had four equine legs, a skeletal horse neck and head, while a humanoid torso rested on its studded back. Two long arms fruitlessly waved at the F302, the vicious looking claws slicing through the open air. It was the bony head of the monster that drew the majority of his attention; beyond a wide maw and pair of curled horns, he saw the burning read eyes of the creature, seeming to peer into his own even at his considerable distance. It wasn't the single ugliest thing he ever saw, but in a seconds time it displaced the previous number four on his list.

Flopping back into his seat, O'Neill took a breath to steady his nerves.

"Okay, that was bizarre." he mumbled. Flicking the radio, he spoke in a calm voice. "Chariot, we got eyes on the contact. Its a giant demon centaur thingamajig, and it looks mad."

" _...um, copy Blue Three. Blue One, can you confirm?_ "

" _Confirmed Chariot. I feel like I need an exorcism even looking at it._ " Mitchell reported tersely.

The radio crackled again, the speaker reminding O'Neill of his passenger. "Chariot, what we're seeing is a type of Grimm known as a Nuckelavee."

"A what?" O'Neill leaned over his shoulder with a brow raised.

There was a scuffle over the radio for a moment; when it crackled again, Daniel's tone came off mildly surprised. " _Right, that's a mythical creature from Celtic and Scottish folklore. Its an ill omened supernatural being that's claimed to live near the water, it was usually blamed for crop failures and plagues in old times._ "

"Interesting. But the beast we're seeing is quite real." the headmaster reported. "Here, its a type of rare Grimm. I can't give a good size estimate from where I am, but this one must be at least ten meters tall."

" _Acknowledged. Threat assessment?_ " Pendergast questioned insistently; faintly audible over the connection was Ironwood's voice, speaking intelligibly on the others side.

"From here, minimal. All the reports I've read concerning these types claims they're ground based only, they have only improvised range attacks." Ozpin explained, glancing out as the F302 swerved to circle the mountain. Far away, the large monster continued to flail its gangly limbs at the alien fighter, impotently trying to attack or ward it off.

" _General Ironwood concurs. Blue Flight, it seems you're safe as long as you're airborne._ " the radio crackled.

" _Acknowledged Chariot._ " Mitchell sighed in relief, his F302 remaining at a higher altitude than O'Neill's. " _Really wishing that thing wasn't peering into my soul like that._ "

" _Wish granted Blue Flight, missions over. Return to base immediately._ " Pendergast ordered.

" _Understood, breaking off._ " With that, the flight leader began to ascend.

O'Neill turned his F302 around to follow him, his face an expressionless mask. The ground far below fell away, along with the still irate Nuckelavee waving at the pair of fighters. When the F302 began to level out, the passenger gave the pilot a curious look.

"Ozpin, how dangerous is the Knuckle-vee on the ground?" O'Neill asked neutrally.

"I can't speak for your fighting skills O'Neill, but if I weren't crippled, I could defeat it on my own. To an experienced Huntsmen team, it'd be a worthy foe. If there was an Atlas detachment nearby, they likely could bombard the Nuckelavee with minimal risk." Ozpin replied.

The Colonel thought for a second. "And what if there wasn't any of that?"

"Then there would be civilian casualties. For a Grimm to reach that size, it has to survive a number of years, so I'm confident in assuming many villages met their end to the creature already. Once we're gone, it will inevitably go searching for more to destroy." the headmaster explained flatly.

Staying on its level course, the F302 was full of mechanical noises of every variety, yet it was bereft of speech. After several seconds Ozpin heard a crackle from the comm, yet O'Neill did nothing to acknowledge the call. He was about to say something when the craft suddenly lurched, the sky above the canopy twisting away nauseatingly fast. Feeling inertia even through the dampeners, he wondered if the sharp bank was putting an unsafe amount of stress on the frame. His questions of what they were doing were answered by O'Neill's simple mutter over the radio.

"Screw it."

Gripping his restraints, Ozpin suppressed a gulp at the rapidly growing mountain they were plummeting towards. Distantly award of the frantic chatter from the radio, he watched O'Neill drive the F302 faster and faster towards the Nuckelavee, which resumed its fruitless act with renewed vigor.

" _Blue Three, are you on an attack run!?_ " Pendergast half shouted. The mic crackled with static from the volume, making Ozpin wince.

" _Sir, these birds aren't designed for CAS._ " Mitchell likewise warned, his worry evident even over the radio.

"I know, but you work with what you got. Call it verifying the kid's report." O'Neill said distractedly, leveling the F302 out so they were even with the mountain peak, and by extension the Grimm.

Gulping as he wrapped a hand around his cane, Ozpin clicked the radio. "Colonel, I believe this is a bad idea."

"My career in a nutshell Ozzy. Now watch and see why they never tell me the odds." O'Neill punctuated his sentence by flicking open a latch on the stick, adding a new high pitched whine to the background noise.

Once the F302 was close enough to make out the malevolent eyes of the Nuckelavee, O'Neill fired. A stream of orange sparks flew from the guns, stitching the ground in front of the Grimm in a ragged path as they veered closer to his mark. The beast finally took its attention off the craft to track the oncoming line, not appreciating the danger until it was too late.

The first of the projectiles to hit the Nuckelavee tore apart its flank, crippling its front legs in one fell swoop. Its pain didn't end there; pulling up, the F302'd fire adjusted accordingly so to tear away a chunk of its humanoid torso too, with the last shot of the run blasting off one of the horns. Just as the fighter swooped overhead, both men inside could hear an ear splitting shriek from the monster, deafening even in the sealed cockpit.

Zooming skyward, O'Neill clicked his radio. "Blue One, you still around? Tell me if freakzilla down there is dead."

" _Ah, roger Blue Three, we're still on station. Stand by._ " Mitchell carefully answered, while the F302 changed course in a wide curve back. Ozpin's curiosity was sated in the worst way when he heard a muffled curse. " _Negative. Tango is still moving, but appears immobilized._ "

A snort came from the pilot. "Railguns are anti-ship weapons." he mocked under his breath, huffing unhappily. "If at first you don't succeed..."

Plummeting towards the mountain again, Ozpin saw the damage with unconcealed surprise; the Nuckelavee was on its knees, an uninjured leg feebly kicking in place. The beast's perforated torso twisted around to meet the F302, its hateful gaze having nothing on the sight of one of its arms holding on by a strip of dark flesh. Just one attack had effectively crippled the dangerous Grimm.

"Cmon you piece of junk, gimme a lock." O'Neill muttered, ignorant of Ozpin's raised eyebrow. "Forget thermals, I'm eyeballing this."

Just as the Nuckelavee let out a fresh roar, the F302 fired its secondary weapons. A missile streaked out from underneath the craft, quiet fast by Ozpin's reckoning. As the fighter banked out of the way, the projectile sped along the rest of the distance in a heartbeat, impacting the Grimm almost dead center. A colossal fireball engulfed the beast in its entirety, the blast wave sending debris flying in every direction. For a moment, it looked as if the mountain was erupting.

"My guns go boom boom. Blue One, you better tell me its dead." O'Neill said lowly.

" _Copy. Ah, we don't have a visual. It looks like its gone sir._ " Mitchell replied nervously.

Ozpin cleared his throat. "Grimm turn to ash when they die, so I'm largely certain the Nuckelavee is finished."

"Really? Crap, there goes my fishing fantasy." O'Neill mumbled ruefully, fortunately turning the F302 skywards, breaking for orbit. A thin trail showed Mitchell was already well ahead of him. Unnoticed by the passenger, the sensor display was lighting up with fresh dots, more popping in by the second.

The radio crackled once more. " _Congrats on your the first kill of the mission Blue Three. Now return to the ship immediately,_ _ **understood**_ _?_ "

00000

...

00000

 **A/N: Welp, that happened. Plus, life** _ **did**_ **decide to slap me for my arrogance.**


	19. An unexpected day

_Forever Fall, two days later..._

Grimm never rested. Unlike mortal beasts, the creatures of darkness were tireless and unyielding, never relenting in their universal goal to destroy man and faunus alike. Nothing could halt them save for death, and nothing could change their ways.

An Ursa lumbering out of the red tinted tree line was no different from any other, uncaring of the early morning dew or the cracking wood under its paws. It paused only to sniff at the air, moving on when it found nothing of interest. It ignored the rustling of the leaves, the songs of the birds, and the cautious eyes of a nearby deer, itself continuing to graze once it identified the creature. The Ursa was no threat to wildlife of any stripe, treating all but man with equal apathy.

The bear like Grimm stopped again by a short hill, turning its eyes towards a series of caves nearby. When it sniffed this time, the Ursa detected a lingering trace of several humans, but the scent was too faint to rouse its ire. Nevertheless, a growl left its throat; the beast knew something was starting to aggravate it, but it didn't know what the source could be. All it understood was the cause being very close by.

Sensing a presence in the vicinity, the Grimm inclined its head back a short distance to snort. It was unaware of a sharp blade whipping through the crisp air, until the weapon plunged into the back of its neck. Recoiling in sudden pain, the Ursa instinctively tried to buck off the weight which landed along with the blow, but it's efforts were too little, too late, to stop the curved sword from severing its head from its body. The Grimm didn't let out so much as a snarl before it collapsed, the body fading into foul ash a moment later.

Landing on his feet, the owner of the weapon automatically checked for any more Grimm in the area. Once satisfied, the ragged looking man in his thirties reached for his waist for his bottled resolve, popping the top to take a long gulp from the flask. His appearance wasn't anything special, being a stubbled fellow in untidy work clothes, with only a red scarf standing out in terms of color. His curved sword, bearing a faint likeness to a sickle, was similarly unassuming. Most people guessed what he was at a glance. Few understood what lied beneath the surface.

Dropping the small container, Qrow Brawen let out a pleased sigh. "Oh yeah, definitely good call on the new brew."

Replacing the flask, the man trundled along a natural path through the clearing. He toed around the ruined trees, his buzzed senses alight for any danger. Finding none, he paused by the base of the small hill to draw his beat up scroll, comparing the map on the display to what he was seeing.

"You've gone evil Glynda, snooping on student files to find out where they've gone. Shame on you." Qrow muttered, closing the device.

He was about to start climbing the rocky hill when a glint of light hit him. Backing up, Qrow frowned as he bore down on the source of the annoyance, curious to what it could be. Crouching down to paw at the grass, he eventually found a tiny lump of metal to pinch his fingers around.

The huntsman grunted, turning over the tiny brass shell in his hands. It was a bullet casing, that much was obvious. Giving the center a cautious sniff, he figured the pistol sized round was fired a few days ago, meaning the shooter was either dead or long gone. Qrow was ready to drop the case back to the ground, but brushing over the end made him hold off for a moment. He felt the etched print on the bottom, basic information to identify the type of ammo. Nothing unusual in his mind, save for the words themselves.

"Five seven, ef en." Qrow read, squinting hard at the markings. "Never heard those initials before." he stood up, debating a second before tossing the casing away. "Ef en, hmm. Fern Elliot? Nah, has to be a company. Wonder who though."

Drawing his sword once he reached the caves, he crept along the series of shallow entrances to peer inside, hunting for something he didn't know anything about; Glynda's communique was annoyingly vague, only telling him to go to a location she provided and to find an object for her. The huntsman was close to disregarding the message, but the line about it being Ozpin's command made him sigh and put off his plans.

Once he hit the third cave, Qrow thought he was on to something at last. Grinning, he approached to snag a long dead glow stick from the ground. Giving it a hearty shake failed to bring even a weak shine, proving it was long since dead. Tossing it away, he peered at the ten meter opening.

"Gotta be something in here." he mumbled, striding in with his weapon in hand.

It was a wise precaution in this case. A Beowolf was sniffing around in the darkness when it heard him, turning to snarl at the human. Qrow wasn't one for formalities, and now was no exception; a mad dash let him meet the Grimm with a powerful slash at its midsection, slicing it in half in one blow. It was cut off mid roar, dissolving before it hit the ground. Waving away the ash, the huntsman went to his belt for a flashlight, clicking it on to shine the light over the ground.

"One, two, three, four..." he counted the glow sticks as he saw them, reaching for his flask as he counted.

His goal was put on hold when the beam crossed over something, which a quick backtrack revealed to be one of the last things he expected to find out in the middle of nowhere.

"Now what do we have here?" Qrow asked the empty cave, walking up to the black altar. Circling the pedestal, the man paused to shine his light over rows upon rows of glyphs, all surrounding a red crystal. Running his hand over the symbols, he frowned in thought, trying to recall ever seeing anything like this object before. Scratching the grit coated surface, he leaned over to examine the strange icons, briefly wondering what they could be.

That was until he pressed down with just enough force, creating a strong clanking noise nearby. His sword leapt into his grip in a heartbeat, the cone of light snapping to the source of the noise. But what Qrow saw stunned even him.

"Okay, so that's what they wanted." he mumbled, approaching the large circular statue caught in the light. "Oz, I really hope you have something to explain this."

00000

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00000

"Alright, I'm outta here." Ruby spoke to her remaining roommates, adjusting the weight of Crescent Rose on her way to the door. Outside the window, the already bright sun was rising ever higher on its course across the sky; thus far it was a clear morning, although the clouds on the horizon were dark with the promise of rain.

Putting on her jacket, Yang glanced to her sister. "Gonna go see JNPR again?"

"Yeah. Nora said she wanted help with combat training, plus Valentine said they needed some team coaching. You guys doing anything later?" Ruby turned around once she reached the door, resting one hand on the knob.

"Just some errands in town." Blake answered from her bed, sitting with a matte laid out in front of her. Gambol Shroud was placed upon the covering in a state of disassembly, being subjected to some much needed maintenance. A tool set helped her in the task, allowing her to tune everything to what she wanted. "That reminds me, did Jaune give a time for the trip?"

"He hasn't yet. Not sure why, they're not doing much." Ruby thought aloud, shrugging after a moment.

"Oh well. Hey if you see Weiss, let her know I'm borrowing her notes. Last test of the year, don't wanna screw it up." Yang ran a gauntlet covered hand through her hair to fluff it, her long mane waving with the movement.

"Will do, see you later." Ruby bade to her friends, closing the door behind her.

Going off at a sedate walk, Ruby allowed some worry into her thoughts; Weiss vanished for a couple hours yesterday, and when she returned the white toned girl was in a foul mood. Any questions of what happened were brushed off, and she refused to speak a word about what had her upset. And this morning, she disappeared yet again without an explanation. Ruby could name but a single thing which could work her up like this, and she had a sinking feeling this was it.

As she passed into the guest dorms, her mind turned to the positive things going on. Her dad was definitely coming to visit, his last letter claimed he would be in Vale within a short time. VERE's schedule was open for the next month, so she had someone to hang out with and train too. The last major test of her Beacon career was officially done, she was certain she did a decent job on it. And lastly, her long lost friends had plenty of free time available.

Coming up to their room, Ruby stopped to rap a knuckle on the door. She only needed to wait a few seconds for it to open. Starting with a cautious crack, it then swung open to let her in.

"Hey Ruby." Ren greeted, waving the smaller girl on.

"Hi guys." she greeted back, taking note of his pistols on his thighs as he shut the door behind her.

For a moment she was struck by a strange sense of deja vu: Pyrrha had a partly disassembled Miló being put back together on her bed, while Nora was tying on her boots by the mutual desk. Both girls looked up from what they were doing to glance at her.

"Hi Ruby!" Nora greeted, enthusiastically waving as if she hadn't seen her in a week. Pyrrha gathered a smile, offering a restrained wave of her own.

Nodding to them, Ruby glanced around the room in confusion. "Hey, where'd Jaune go?"

Just as Ren opened his mouth, there was a bright flash of light in the center of the room, lasting only a second. Rubbing the spots out of her eyes, the red toned girl checked again to find her question answered.

"Gah, ah." Jaune groaned, grabbing his forehead to steady himself as he swayed, a small duffel in his grip swinging with him. "Why'd that make me so dizzy?" he muttered. A cough from the girls grabbed the young man's attention, and a pointed finger from the redhead directed his attention to the guest. "Oh, hi Ruby."

"Morning Jaune." Ruby smiled as she nodded, masking her sudden unease.

He saw it however, chuckling bashfully as he rubbed his neck. "Yeah, sorry. Official summons, so I had to report in uniform."

"Its okay, its what you gotta do." she replied cheerfully, forcing herself to cease her staring at the green outfit, sans vest and equipment. What helped was noticing each of the current residents picking up, looking to him intently.

Jaune let out a regretful sigh, turning to his team next. "Okay, good news, it's not a crisis."

It was impossible for Ruby to miss the exhales from all three, with Nora mumbling, "Had me worried for a bit." Their relief soothed her, since she had no idea what to do if something bad happened, like an invasion.

"Just some official business. And, um." Biting his lip, he glanced to the red huntress. "Say, is Yang busy today?"

"Nothing big, why?" she asked, raising her brow in curiosity.

Jaune sucked in a breath through his teeth. "I'll explain in a minute, are my...?"

"Clothes are in the bathroom where you left them." Pyrrha answered, lifting Miló to point at the wall. A sharp click of a dry fire made her lower it with a satisfied look.

"Thanks." he answered gratefully, approaching her bed to lift up the small carry bag. "I grabbed you a P90, Major Carter traded in the M16 parts for me."

"Thanks. Can you put it in the closet with the others, please?" she pointed along with the question, making him nod as he treaded to the tiny storage space.

Finishing up with her bootlaces, Nora gave him a look. "So what's the deal?"

"Um..." Jaune froze halfway to the bathroom, letting out a quiet groan. "It's... gimme a sec and I'll explain." he said quickly, darting into the bathroom to close the door behind him.

Ruby fought the urge, but it was no use; she glanced to Ren as he crossed his arms, raising her brow. "What was that all about?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." he replied, similarly lost.

Pyrrha left the bed to switch her weapon to javelin mode as a test, as Nora grabbed her scroll and Magnhild. Meanwhile Ruby tapped her foot on the floor, waiting patiently beside Ren. The silence was uncomfortable, making her think of anything to break it. A sudden thought gave her an option.

Clearing her throat, she started with, "Do you guys mind if I ask a question about your work?"

"Go ahead." Ren invited as the closest, looking at her. There was a gleam in his eyes that set her on edge however, making her nervously clear her throat.

"Um, its not about the thing in the armory." Ruby clarified, shifting her weight to one foot. His simple nod made her slump her shoulders, and she decided to move on rather than trying to pry. "Its actually a thing I heard Jaune mention a couple days ago, when his sister stopped by. What's Zat Week?"

Instantly the trio's expressions changed. Ren and Pyrrha suddenly cringed, wincing at something. In contrast, Nora snapped her head over and beamed maniacally.

"Um..." the sable haired man glanced to Pyrrha, who coughed.

"Um, ah..." she played with the weapon in her hands, for a moment avoiding eye contact. "Eeahh, it was a training exercise for Zats." she said guardedly.

Ruby tilted her head to the side. "That doesn't sound-"

"They shot us." Nora butted in, standing tall with an enormous grin on her features, silencing the girl instantly.

Gulping nervously alongside Pyrrha, Ren raised a placating hand. "Um, Nora?"

"Once a day for a week, random times and by random people. It was supposed to toughen us up, and it did for me!" she said, pumping a fist in victory.

Ruby's hollow look made her snicker, and caused the redhead to hurriedly clear her throat. "Um, it had a point. If you get shot by a Zat enough, you'll build up some immunity. Plus, it was so if we did get hit in the field, we would know what to do."

"Oh yeah. I dunno why the rest of you guys didn't like Zat Week, I had a great time." the orange haired girl proclaimed, planting a fist on her hip in pride.

Ren coughed into a fist. "You're the only one who isn't laid out by those, it hurts for everyone else."

"Ha, wimp." Nora dismissed with a petty wave.

Fortunately the bathroom swung open for Jaune to stroll out, clad in his street clothes and missing only Crocea Mors. His own uneasy look switched to concern when he saw Ruby's expression, and when he turned to his team, Nora obliged his unspoken question. "Told her about Zat Week."

"Ah." he went, sucking in a breath. "Okay, Ruby?"

The red toned girl shook her head, forcing out the mental images of her friends being subjected to the same agony as her sister. Taking a steadying breath, she met his gaze. "Yeah?"

"Can you get Yang over here? Its, ah, I need her help." Jaune admitted nervously, wringing his hands.

"Ah, sure, hang on." she reached for her scroll, pondering what had him so worried. As she hit her sister's icon, she suddenly asked herself why he needed the blonde's help.

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 _Vale, hours later..._

"You've got to be kidding me." Yang repeated for the hundredth time, slumping with an empty look. Beside her Jaune finally stopped digging at his neck, choosing to rub his nose and sigh. The empty alleyway nearby the trams gave the combined party a lot of privacy, but not enough to let her hit him and get away with it.

"Cheer up kids, it isn't that bad." offered O'Neill, shrugging to loosen up.

SG-1 weren't clad in uniforms, though that did little to help them blend in. Carter had jeans and a leather jacket, though her body language was impossible to hide. The blonde woman was clearly trying to relax, playing with her sleeves and jostling the holstered Zat hidden away. Daniel was doing better, his outfit of a thick overcoat and slacks making him look like a professor. Teal'c differed from his usual self only by wearing jeans and a windbreaker, along with a beanie to hide the emblem. Finally O'Neill had on an old jacket and jeans, his hands in his pockets as he gave the natives a quizzical look.

"Seriously, relax." O'Neill said with an easygoing wave. "We're just gonna go be tourists for a couple hours, see the sights, yadda yadda. No big deal."

"Well, I'm actually going to hunt down a museum or a library. I don't get the chance to study alien cultures nearly as often as I'd like to." Daniel corrected, briefly adjusting his glasses.

"I'd like to find a machine shop myself, though I'll admit this is a pretty city." Carter said, rolling her shoulders.

O'Neill wrinkled his brow. "Okay, Teal'c and I are goin sightseeing. Right buddy?" he turned to the large man with a hopeful look.

"Indeed." he said softly, almost resignedly.

When Yang swiveled her head to Jaune, the young man sighed.

"I know, and I'm sorry. But I didn't know who else to ask. I'm serious, you and Blake are the only ones in my social circle who knows their way around Vale. I mean, even before I didn't really know the city, so I'd get everybody lost in no time." he explained, wincing when he touched the red skin of his neck.

"Lucky me." Yang muttered ruefully.

"I'll make it up to you, I promise." he vowed, wincing when O'Neill glanced to him.

"Take it easy kid, I'm not hardcase Smith. You can relax around me. Now." he turned to Yang. "You're the tour guide of the day, where to?"

The blonde took a breath, glancing to the others. "Where do you wanna go?"

"Museum."

"Repair shop."

"Coffee."

O'Neill opened his mouth, but the older man paused as he twisted around in befuddlement. "What happened to sticking together?"

"Sir, you did say we're taking it easy while being incognito." Carter pointed out as she glanced around the alley.

"Yeah, and lets face it, our cover story of being Atlas citizens is pretty weak. Splitting up means more potential incidents, but it also means its less likely for people to connect the dots." Daniel offered with a gesture.

"I desire coffee. Real coffee, not Air Force issued rations." Teal'c spoke, halting the Colonel in the middle of replying.

To add insult to injury, Jaune cleared his throat. "With your permission sir, I'm going to leave. I can't offer much to help you here."

"I, I, grr..." O'Neill slapped his face, groaning. After a moment he flopped a hand in the blond's general direction. "Fine, get outta here. Go visit your family or something."

His flash of relief withered under Yang's unhappy look, the young man wincing as he mouthed another apology. She kept her eyes on him until he disappeared around a corner, sighing once he was out of sight.

"Okay." she mumbled, turning back to the awaiting Earthers. "You'll find shops and contractors all over the city, I think there's a couple on this street. There's a small history museum downtown, maybe three or four blocks that way. Big sign out front, you can't miss it. Never visited myself, so I don't know if there's a fee."

"That's fine, we have a little cash." Daniel replied, pulling a couple lien from his pocket to show her. "It's not stolen if you're curious."

Yang raised a brow. "Did you forge it or something?"

"Headmaster Ozpin provided a small fund for our excursion. He suggested we see the city as gratitude for allowing him to tour our ship." Teal'c corrected, his flat gaze making her unwittingly bristle.

"That's right. Besides, we have another team to take care of the fine details." Carter added, briefly wincing.

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 _Headmaster office, Beacon tower..._

"I confess that I'm less than impressed by your offer Major." Ozpin lowered the sheaf of papers to meet Washington's gaze, noting how the man's body seemed to stiffen. The four other men of SG-9 likewise showed the pain, a sharp difference to Ironwood's pacing with a scroll in hand and Glynda's sighing. "I understand your reluctance to offer your best technologies in trade, and I can see the advantages of these cargo transport aircraft designs you're offering. But it doesn't carry the same worth as our android technology, even with the last generation designs. Your other trade options are agreeable, if underwhelming."

Major Washington inhaled slowly, one of his eyes twitching as he clutched his clipboard. "The range of antibiotics, vaccines, and staple crops aren't satisfactory?"

"They are, but it's not enough by far." Ozpin tented his hands in front of himself, showing a rare gleam in his eyes. "Surely you have something else besides food and medicine. Something like, say, this eff fifteen I've seen here? Its like a non orbital F302, right? I can think of a few people who would like to have some of those."

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"I pity those guys." Carter mumbled under her breath, walking away to the directions she was provided with.

O'Neill, Teal'c, and Yang watched her go, the former sullenly mumbling accusations. That done, the blonde glanced to the large man last, trying to avoid staring at his choice of headwear.

"Alright, there's a whole block of little shops a little distance that way. There's usually a lot of visitors, so I don't think you'll stand out." she pointed in the opposite direction that the woman went, watching him dip his head before turning to leave. With Daniel gone and Carter out of sight, this left her alone with the Colonel.

"Some pals you guys are." O'Neill muttered, giving the city a sour look.

"And you?" Yang asked, catching his attention as she shifted her weight. "Anywhere you wanna go?"

O'Neill sighed, dipping his head back. "Movie theater if you got one."

"That way." Yang pointed, smiling in satisfaction. Her triumph faded when he glanced at her instead of leaving. "What?"

"You know, this is an unknown place. I could get lost here." he said slyly, unexpectedly grinning as he crossed his arms. "I'm awful with directions after all."

"Uh huh, nice try. Not buying it." Yang narrowed her eyes as she copied him.

He shrugged uncaringly. "The kid said he owes you, tack it onto his tab or something."

"I got stuff I wanna do today." she shot back.

"Like what?" he grinned, as if daring her.

Yang glowered at him for a minute before groaning, slapping her forehead. "Fine, whatever, but if you do something to embarrass me I'm leaving you behind."

"Highlight of this beaming thing, rescue is one transmission away." O'Neill waved for the girl to lead, the man stuffing his hands in his pockets as he trotted in her wake.

Yang kept her eyes forward, aware of O'Neill behind her. She hoped he was busy looking at the city instead of her, and thus would stay quiet until she found a good place to cut him loose.

"So, whatchu been up to lately?" he asked, coming up to her side. The blonde silently resented the several centimeters of height he had on her.

"Why do you care?" she replied dryly, shifting her attention when she spotted some underclassmen she recognized, on the opposite side of the street fortunately.

"Just trying to be friendly. Not everything's about the job you know, gotta relax sometime." he defended, tugging in his jacket.

"I was relaxing, before you showed up." the blonde retorted, checking her surroundings.

"I doubt that. You got that look to ya, like you got something big on your mind." he replied, ignoring her sideways look in favor of a woman with bunny ears, who was walking down the sidewalk the way they came. "Probably has something to do with your hand."

Yang jerked to a stop, snapping her stunned eyes to him. O'Neill needed a moment to notice, turning around with an inquisitive expression.

"H-how did you...?" she couldn't finish, uncaring of the shop door jingling behind her.

"I got eyes kid. In my line of work, it pays to... pay attention." he slumped at the phrase, giving his forehead a tap. "Whatever, anyway I saw your hand back on Earth, figured it was an accident or something."

"Y-yeah, an accident." Yang lied, straightening herself out.

O'Neill grinned as he waggled a finger. "Too late, you goofed up. So, what happened?"

"That's not your business." she said coldly, sliding into a combat stance.

"Somebody hurt you eh? Want help taking them down?" he offered with a roll of his shoulders.

"Its not... wait." she stopped, features wrinkling in confusion.

"I don't like it when kids get hurt. And by my standards, you're a kid. Simple as that." he replied, hands in his pockets with the most nonchalant expression she ever saw.

Yang shifted her weight, having trouble believing the man. "You don't even know the score, and you wanna help me."

"Pretty much yeah. When you get down to it, my motivations in life are pretty simple. Now, movies if you will, then go do whatever you were using as an excuse." O'Neill waved her on expectantly, shrugging when she shook her head in complete disbelief.

It was then that the shop door jingled again, the former occupant going three paces before stopping to turn around. The hooded figure stepped to the side in order to get a look at the blonde, pulling off her hood after a second.

Yang glanced over, processing the sight of the individual she really didn't care for. "Of course."

"Hello Yang Xiao Long." Eliane greeted, finally shattering the younger girl's stupor. "I was shopping for supplies. What are you doing here?" the Arc asked, glancing towards the relaxed man standing nearby.

"Hi." O'Neill greeted openly, giving the unknown woman an encouraging smile as he swiveled to the student. "Friend of yours?"

Yang stared blankly at him, barely reining in her temper.

Then, she blinked. And then, she grinned.

"Yeah, you can say she's a friend of mine. O'Neill, this is Eliane." she waved at the uncomprehending woman. "Eliane, this is a... contact of a friend, whose here on business. You two have something in common and you don't know it!" she lazily threw her arms up on mock cheer. "I'll leave you two to get acquainted. Just start with Jaune and see where you end up."

Yang strode away in nearly a sprint, ignoring the looks while she smirked. As far as she was concerned, a volatile mess was left in the dust, and she was officially in the clear.

O'Neill glanced to Eliane, shrugging and extending a hand. "Hi, names Jack."

"I am Eliane." she hesitantly did the same, frowning in discomfort as she shook his hand. "Do you know someone named Jaune?"

"I do actually, he's a nice kid. Kind of a dummy, but they all are at that age. You?" he let go to cross his arms, giving her an appraising look.

"He's my brother. Do you know him?" she tilted her head, watching the older man suddenly cough.

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Daniel found his goal without much effort, gazing upon the small building with uncertainty. He consoled himself by assuming it was a larger building than what it appeared to be, and by going inside he could find the great repositories of knowledge a civilization like this should possess. Ignoring a group of students, he paid the entry fee without a thought and went indoors, eager to see the history of another civilization.

His vision lasted for approximately thirty seconds.

"You're not serious." Daniel got out, looking at the two and only two hallways, marked simply as 'Pre Great War' and 'Post Great War' respectively. "Can't be, this can't be all there is."

The scholar narrowed his eyes. "No, there has to be more." he declared to himself, powering towards the exhibits and ignoring the bored receptionist. "Has to be, has to be something more..."

"It's simply deplorable, isn't it?" went a stuffy voice, diverting Daniel's attention away from the sparse museum to an obese man in red, possessing a fading hairline yet a thick grey mustache. The unhappy man gave the doctor a sympathetic look. "Young people these days, they care so little for our truly bare history, don't they? Not one of my students cares to go out to find out what else is out there."

"Yeah, know that feeling." Daniel agreed, hands in his pockets as he kept his eyes on the stranger. Nevertheless, old memories of his mockery filled lecturing career flashed before his eyes.

The man in a red formal outfit did a double take, looking over the Earth born visitor. "Ah, where are my manners? Professor Peter Port of Beacon Academy, at your service." he greeted, sticking a hand out.

Returning the gesture, Daniel noted the clammy feel of his heavily callused hands. "Dr. Daniel Jackson, of um, Atlas Academy. Pleased to meet you."

"Atlas eh? Little far from home, aren't you?" Port asked quizzically, turning to face him.

"Call it a vacation. Although." he spared a sour glance at the exhibits. "I'm wondering if I wasted my time."

Port laughed. "This is what you get with city funded institutions, they have nothing worth mentioning. My study has greater offerings than this."

"Really." Daniel went, his eyes all but lighting up.

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Some distance away, Carter happened upon a storefront by the name of Higgly's Repair and Rental. It seemed like the closest thing to what she wanted, an exercise in seeing a technology base unlike any other she encountered in the flesh

Looking to the billboard out front, the blonde denied that she was looking at the offerings, especially the portion mentioning what was in stock. Samantha Carter was a soldier, scientist, pilot, expert on xenotechnology, diplomat, and if the need arose, a caretaker. She insisted she was looking at the available merchandise purely for the chance to examine new technology in action, and not because she wanted to take a jet turbine powered motorcycle for a spin.

The Major wanted to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of the thought, and how it was beneath her dignity. That was until a few seconds of idle thought computed a two hour rental fee was well within her budget.

"Sold." Carter decided, all but marching to the door.

One rattle of the handle caught her off guard, making her give it a curious look. Then Carter peered inside the glass, discovering immediately the darkness within. Her excitement withered into nothingness upon seeing the closed sign, more so when she saw the 'services booked until further notice' sticker plastered underneath.

Sighing dejectedly, Carter turned to stride away, but she didn't get far before realizing there was someone running down the sidewalk, coming her way. Pausing to frown, she idly checked her holster for the Zat, guardedly curious. Then the girl entered her sight, too busy frantically checking the way she came to notice the woman until she bumped into her, stumbling them both.

Normally Carter would've felt a level of indignation at such a rude act, but not this time. The pale toned girl whirled around with a sharp reply on her lips, the recognition in her eyes putting an end to it instantly.

"Um, Miss Schnee?" the blonde checked, watching the girl back away with a strained sigh.

"Carter, what are you... ah..." Weiss clutched her head, squeezing her eyes shut. "Of all people, I had to bump into you."

"What's wrong?" she asked, catching movement out of the corner of her vision.

Weiss snapped her head over, alarm written all over her features. For a second she swung her head around, after a second latching onto the billboard. "You didn't see me, okay?"

Before Carter could protest, the girl darted to the sign in order to leap to the other side, vanishing from her sight. Giving her hiding spot a raised brow, she decided to recheck her surroundings in order to find out what was going on.

When she spotted another woman a little younger than she was marching from the same direction, Carter tensed up even as she examined her. What drew her gaze was not only the pale skin, but the close cropped white hair and blue eyes she had, particularly when they were turned her way. Maintaining a relaxed posture, Carter kept her attention on the arrival as she came up to face her.

"Pardon me." she greeted, devoid of emotion as she clasped her hands behind her back. Her sleeveless white outfit bore a resemblance to an officer's regalia, though it lacked the ostentation Carter normally associated with such uniforms. An ornamentally designed sword was held via a strap on her waist, in a way that roused the blonde's suspicions. "Have you seen a young woman coming through here?"

Carter debated for a second on her approach. "I did, but I'm not sure if she's the one you're chasing."

"Chasing." The woman repeated dryly. "This is family trouble, it's nothing unforward. Now, do I need to repeat myself?"

"Was she wearing black, blonde hair, had a rapier, and this tall?" Carter held a hand at the height of her collarbone, approximately that of the pale girl.

"Wrong on all counts." the woman replied, narrowing her eyes as she began to turn towards Weiss's hiding place.

"Then yeah." Carter crossed her arms, leveling an annoyed look on the woman. "All white, looks a lot like you." she said, capturing her attention as she pointed down the sidewalk. "Saw her going that way in hurry, think I heard her mention something about a flight."

A tiny smile crossed the stranger, giving her a perfunctory nod. "Good, thank you."

Carter backed out of the way to allow the white haired woman passage, keeping track of her fast stride until she was out of sight. Movement from the corner of her vision made her look over, features softening while Weiss left her cover.

"Thanks." the girl sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"I'd say no problem, except I wanna know why I just lied to that person." Carter said, jabbing a thumb the way she went.

Wrinkling her expression, Weiss slumped. "Her names Winter. She's my sister."

"Really?" she asked, glancing to the vanished woman. "That answers some questions."

"Its, its... she said it. Family trouble." Weiss reluctantly answered, sparing a pensive look around. "She wants to take me back home."

"That seemed a little extreme for just wanting to give you a ride." Carter replied, frowning as she gestured for the girl to get out of the walkway. They backed up to the closed shop, the girl looking as if she wanted to be anywhere else.

"Yeah, if only it was that simple." the girl muttered darkly.

Carter frowned, raising a brow. "What's the problem, really?"

"You told us back on Earth that you wanted to know more about Dust, right?" Weiss checked, eliciting a nod. "Well guess what, my family owns the largest Dust company on the planet, and apparently the universe." she said the last part quietly, softly groaning.

Carter blinked. "Oh. Ooh..."

"Yeah. My father wants me home to help run the company, and he doesn't take no for an answer." Weiss shook her head, voice dripping with bitterness.

The blonde nodded thoughtfully, frowning as she looked away. "Know the feeling."

"I doubt it." she dismissed. "He's been pushing for me to leave Beacon and the 'huntsman nonsense' for a while now. I've been stalling as much as possible, but once I'm graduated, I either return willingly or he drags me back."

When Carter stifled a chuckle, Weiss gave her a strange look. "You're not the only one with a pushy dad. Mine at least just wanted what's best for me."

Weiss snorted, letting her head fall back. "I'd trade you if I could." she mumbled, peering at the airships in the distance. "I might need your advice though."

"My advice?" Carter repeated, turning to raise her brow.

The girl huffed. "You passed the trials and stuff for the Earth army. So its not impossible I could get into the Atlas military, its what Winter did."

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In contrast to his teammates, Teal'c encountered a distinct lack of trouble during his excursion. No small part of his good fortune was due to his intimidating appearance, with his habitual stoicism doing wonders to reinforce the attitude. This left him free to simply bask in the presence of a vibrant city, who knew nothing of the false gods he vowed to destroy.

Not to say he was completely free of influencing them. In an open air cafe, the Jaffa found himself drawn into an interesting conversation with a pair of tourists, not unlike like himself.

"Menagerie." Teal'c repeated, stirring his coffee with a small spoon. "I am curious to know what things are like there."

"Well, nothing like Vale is the easiest way to put it. For one, its a lot warmer back home." the older woman replied; as if on cue she shivered, clutching the thick fur coat closer to herself. The long skirt she had wasn't helping her perceived chill, her cat like ears flicking every few seconds.

Her husband, a veritable giant who easily challenged Teal'c in size, nodded sympathetically. Even with an ill fitting shirt, his thicker outfit and copious body hair were much better at insulation. A thick beard rustled every time his jaw moved, although it caught the foam of his own coffee every time he sipped. "There's a lot fewer amenities there, and its crowded like you wouldn't believe."

"I have seen very crowded places during my travels. But I know there is a difference between interacting and living in such conditions." Teal'c replied, sipping as he tracked a pair of faunus stroll into the cafe, one small and perky, the other tall and quiet. The opposite color schemes of white and black reinforced the seemingly blatant contradiction, though the pair showed zero sign of antagonism.

"Yeah, but I'll be honest, the crowds grow on you." the husband said, glancing towards the students as well. "Its a hard place, but its free. You don't have to worry about being shoed out just because of who you are, no one forcing you down, its..." the man smiled, giving a slight shake of his head. The wife placed a hand atop of his, giving him an encouraging smile. "Its not sentimental to wish our daughter didn't leave as soon as she did, is it?"

Teal'c let a small smile cross him as he sipped his coffee. "I too know the value of freedom. It is my fondest wish that one day, all peoples of all lands will know such things."

When the woman stifled a laugh, he swiveled his eyes to her. "Sorry, its just you sound just like him back in the day." she nodded towards her husband. "When we were still building our home."

"Yeah, thought I could spread the message everywhere, so everybody would know it." he shook his head, showing signs of reliving old memories.

"There is no shame in narrowing your goals, only in narrowing your vision. Only those who willingly surrender everything are worthy of contempt." Teal'c said sagely.

The bulky man leaned back, giving him an upturned smirk. "Wise words."

"One of my master's teachings. I can only imagine what he would think of this place." the Jaffa spared a glance to the sky, distantly wondering where old Bray'tac was now. In the meantime, he pondered whether or not to ask the couple about their daughter, and how he could explain he knew of her without angering either parent.

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 _Central Vale, dusk..._

" _Reen_ , why'd you stop?" Nora half whined, whipping herself around pensively.

After a day of reconnecting with home and running errands, the pair was spent. Fortunately the worst of their tasks were finished today, leaving their respective schedules free for the foreseeable future.

The black haired man ignored her, staring with a raised eyebrow at something in the open. He peered into the open part they were passing, one designed to mimic the wilderness barred to humanity, though not completely; besides a web of pathways, a number of benches and water fountains were scattered about, along with several tall lampposts. It wasn't dark enough for them to flick on, but it would be shortly.

"Ren?" Nora repeated, worry sliding into her tone. When he raised a hand to point towards one particular bench, she followed his direction, only for raw surprise to overcome her expression. "Is that..."

"Yeah." he agreed, going off at a sedate pace with her on his heels.

The huntsmen pair didn't have to go far, owing to their goal's location being close to the park edge. Both the seated people were talking in calm tones, with neither becoming aware of the approaching huntsmen until they were almost upon them. The woman of the duo glanced away when she heard the pair, interrupting a man who was many years her senior.

"Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie." Elaine acknowledged, hood down and expression completely neutral. Her bow was slung behind her back, undrawn and unbloodied.

In contrast, O'Neill leaned back as he twiddled his thumbs. "Hey kids, whatchu doing here?"

Both arrivals stared mutedly, switching between the completely mismatched duo. When Nora coughed, she unconsciously cringed. "Sir-"

O'Neill's swiped hand silenced her. "Don't. Incognito, remember?"

"Right s... O'Neill." Ren said in her stead, giving a look to Eliane. The blonde, who railed against them days ago, appeared at ease.

"Jack O'Neill and I are having a civil conversation." she spoke flatly.

"You..." Nora worked her jaw for a second before giving up and groaning. " _How?_ "

"I'm good like that. By the way, if you tell Daniel about this, I'm gonna lock you in a closet. I _am not_ , and _have not_ , been hitting on this young lady." O'Neill warned, leaning forward to stab a finger in their direction. Their frantic nods made him lean back. "Good. She's cleared by the way, knows everything."

"Ooh..." Nora winced, wrinkling her features as she began to recoil.

"I don't care, she's family to Arc. I'd be a bit upset if he didn't tell his sister anything. 'Sides, Ozpin says he and his buds are gonna disclose everything in a month or two, so it's not a big deal anyway." O'Neill explained, shrugging off the matter.

"Huh." Ren said, the news being insufficient to clear up his confusion. "Pardon me, but I was working under the assumption you hated militaries." he got out, holding out a hand towards her.

"I do. They are dishonorable-" Eliane was interrupted by O'Neill clearing his throat, earning a disapproving look from her. "Very well. But if you are referring to my conduct before, what angered me was Jaune choosing a lifestyle he's unsuited for, as well as you three joining him in this foolishness. I didn't know Jack before he enlisted, so I can't tell how much of his potential he wasted over his career."

O'Neill sighed, ignoring the younger girl mumbling, "You kidding me, first names?"

"I went over this with Ellie here like five times. I tried _everything_ to keep you guys out of the Air Force, used every dirty trick I knew, but Kinsey pulled some strings to make sure it happened no matter what me or anyone in the mountain tried. Making the training impossible didn't work, since you kids went and passed everything I could think up. Hammond probably lost what's left of his hair over that." O'Neill dropped his head back, mumbling epithets at the politician.

"Fortunately, Jack gave me wonderful news." Eliane added, a tiny smile gracing her.

Nora let her mouth hang open a little, right a hand to point at the Colonel. "You called her that, and got away with it." she said blankly, Ren nodding in wide eyed agreement.

Eliane reversed her smile, and O'Neill sighed while he rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

O'Neill rose to his feet, taking a second to stretch. "Alrighty, I've had my fun, repaid the favor Ozzy got, and the best part is I didn't get shot at once. I'm gonna go find a phone booth or something I can vanish to."

"I'll be off as well." Eliane rose to her feet in one smooth motion, methodically working her arms for stiffness. "It's getting late, so I'll be returning to my motel room. Tomorrow, I'd like to spend more time with Jaune. If that's alright with you."

"Um, sure?" Ren said, glancing to an equally lost Nora.

Finishing up, O'Neill cracked his neck. "Do you kids ever relax anymore? Austin and DuFresne aren't hardcases, so you don't got a reason to act all stiff like this. Come to think of it, why didn't all of you get stuck in Carolina's squad? She freewheels more than I do."

"Its, um..." Ren began, trying hard not to wince under O'Neill's expectant gaze.

"Well s... O'Neill. She flipped out when we told her what happened, and you got her to play nice. How'd you do it?" Nora questioned disbelievingly, keeping an eyebrow raised at him.

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm good, leave it at that."

"I attempted to kill him when he informed me of his identity." Eliane told them, reaching around to smooth out her cloak. "But as someone not of Remnant, I was fascinated. Long enough for him to explain himself."

"See?" O'Neill jabbed a thumb towards her. "That simple, you just gotta..." he trailed off upon seeing the blonde suddenly jerking.

"Wha-" Nora started, only for her to raise a hand to silence her.

Eliane's expression faded away, features becoming utterly blank as she slowly pivoted in place. She moved in a circle, her eyes narrowing while they began to glow. Reaching up, she grabbed her bow to get it in hand, all of her actions carefully deliberate. The fastest move she made was a jerk of her arm, transforming the weapon into a gleaming sword.

Feeling tingles crawl up their spines, Nora and Ren made a grab for their weapons, placing hands on them in preparation. Sighing, O'Neill opened his jacket to reach inside.

Eliane turned to the side, eyes roaming over the dimming area. "Someone's here."

A mere second later, she whirled around with the sword up, a loud clang of metal coinciding with a mass of something flying above her. She took the blow with a grunt, waiting until her attacker was right above her to push forward, flinging him skyward while she whipped around.

Mid air he flipped, circling in order to land in a crouch several meters away, his heavy breathing insufficient to stop his deranged grin. In both his hands were curved knives, the reflective sheen catching what little light remained in the day, especially as he rose to stand. A short braided pony tail idly slapped against his leather jacket, a near drum like staccato to match his unsettling movement.

Elaine had her sword up in a two handed grip, Ren with both pistols aimed at him, Nora switched to her grenade launcher first thing, and O'Neill drew a seemingly tiny pistol to train on the attacker. Upon noticing the severe imbalance, he groaned unhappily.

In response, he beheld the four armed combatants before him with near feral glee.

" _Hello_ little sheep, the _wolf_ is among you." he got out, curling in on himself as a chilling giggle escaped him.

O'Neill set his features into a hard line. "Alright fruitcake, where's your meds?"

"You _fear_ cannot be masked." the attacker half growled, jerking forward to make the younger members flinch.

"Trust me, I have a lot of experience in dealing with fear. Usually by shooting creeps like you." O'Neill replied, watching his face twist into a snarl. Ren and Nora gave him a bizarre look, stunned enough to take their eyes off the attacker.

When Eliane stepped forward, she held out an arm to stop them. "All of you stay back."

"Um, what're you doing?" Nora got out, the barrel of her launcher quivering along with her.

"Do _tell_ , I'm curious." the attacker half purred, his body writhing in malicious glee.

"His name is Tyrian Callows." Elaine replied, watching him suddenly flinch. "He's a particularly dangerous bandit, has a bounty of fifty thousand lien, dead or alive. You were too much of a murderer for the White Fang."

The freshly named man stood up straight for a moment, expression neutral. Then, he unexpectedly smiled. "I like you. I'll kill you first."

Nora and Ren exchanged looks of befuddlement, noting uneasily how Tyrian's eyes kept drifting back to them.

"Alrighty then." O'Neill declared, thumbing his safety off. "Its the funny farm for you, ya fruitcake." His M9 kicked in his hands, the cue for the younger pair to open fire as well.

But Tyrian was already moving, racing forward with a dark giggle.

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 **A/N: I'd rather not finish this on a cliffhanger, but I'm a couple minutes away from leaving for a while. Feel free to complain about it ending just as it was getting good, I deserve it**.


	20. Encounters

**A/N: I'm gonna start by giving a shoutout to Major Simi and the anonymous guest, the latter for the kind review, and the former for sticking with this story for this long. I appreciate the both of you. Since I'm in the mood, here's a shoutout to GeneralAllenWalker, for the feedback and being willing to put up with me for this long. Here's one for finstermunker while I'm feeling generous.**

 **And before I forget, time to state the obvious: absolutely nothing you spot in this story belongs to me, it's the property of the owners. If the stuff here was mine, you think it'd be on FF net?**

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Inhaling slowly, Cinder stood beside the throne with her hands clasped, waiting patiently for her master to finish. Her usual morning routine was becoming more unhinged by the second, due mainly to Emerald's message; a couple lines of text and six images were the contents, all of it concerning a weird statue she and Mercury found. After rereading it twice, she thought the information was utterly insignificant, but felt it was worth reporting their progress.

Salem set the scroll down on the expansive table, her expression unreadable. When she pushed the tiny device away, the candles in close proximity flickered.

"Cinder." she spoke without inflection, staring at a faraway wall rather than her.

As she was expected to do, Cinder replied. "Yes my lady?"

"My previous command to you is now voided." Salem said simply, not reacting to the woman doing a double take. "Watts and Hazel will go to Haven on their own, you will not be joining them. Go to Vale, and find this relic." she finished, tapping on the screen. The pixelated image of a circular statue flickered for a moment, as if the device itself was in terror. "Do not allow it to fall into enemy hands."

"Ah, but-" Cinder tried to speak, her features wrinkling in astonishment.

"I am aware of the contradiction to my previous orders. But this..." at last Salem showed emotion, her upper lip curling. "I had thought this relic dead and buried long ago, in the era before time began. If Ozpin has found it, then he will use utilize its power. I will not allow him to possess such an advantage, no matter the cost."

Cinder gulped, mustering her reserves of willpower. "What... what is that statue? Is it a weapon?"

Salem leaned back, glaring as she scoffed. "Humans are such simple minded creatures. No, this is no weapon." As Cinder opened her mouth, the dark lord of this place turned her gaze, silencing the woman immediately. "This artifact is older than the world itself. It existed before Man and the Grimm, perhaps before the gods themselves."

The master leaned back, tenting her fingers as she stared at the unassuming image. The subordinate's rising confusion was disregarded, her black eyes unfocused.

"It is a creation of the old ones, gods and monsters alike who were brought low by their arrogance, in the aeons before creation began. Those ancient beings used great totems such as this to traverse their realms, via magics beyond mortal understanding. I do not know if they left one of their rings behind, or if the gods found one to claim as their own. What matters is its presence here." Salem finished, brushing her hand over the scroll once more.

"If its so old, then should I destroy it?" the woman hesitantly asked. Cinder was aware her master knew secrets beyond the keen of anyone save perhaps Ozpin, but she rarely shared such knowledge. This was a rare opportunity to learn of things she would never suspect existed before.

Salem's huff brought her back to the present. "There is no force on this world that can destroy this artifact. It existed long before Remnant, and I suspect it will exist long after this world perishes. No, you will either bring it to this place, or bury it deep so no one will find it. Whatever you do, do _not_ let Ozpin or his allies claim the ring, or he will bring ruin to us all. Seek help from the White Fang if you must, but insure none of them will spread word of what you found."

"I understand." Cinder nodded, feeling anything but.

Salem nodded once, giving her a lidless stare. "Now go, do not disappoint me again."

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"Sonofa-"

One strike was all it took, just one rapid backhand swipe from Tyrian's arm, was enough to knock the incognito Colonel off his feet. O'Neill's attempt to dodge was utterly fruitless, leaving him stunned to the point of letting go of the M9, the gun tumbling from his limp fingers. He didn't hit the ground yet before the bandit lunged towards Eliane, bringing his twin knives up for a vicious slash.

A resounding clash of steel rang out with her parry, the grunting blonde using her weapon to block his attacks. But the bandit was unperturbed; rather than back away, Tyrian kept slashing faster than she could move, leaving her on the defensive. The constant flurry of attacks were driving her back, the woman ceding ground against his vicious assault. His demented laughter showed what he thought of the fight thus far.

When a large mass swung at his back, his giggling was cut off, but not his smile. Mid parry Tyrian ducked away from the enemy sword, off balancing her while he cleanly dodged the hammer that came at him from his blindside. The hammer's owner was briefly stunned by the quick response, and then by him jolting to his feet right in front of her, grinning maniacally. Nora tried to bring Magnhild back to block, but it was too late; Tyrian drove a fist into her midsection, staggering the girl for a slash at the face, which her Aura barely absorbed.

Whipping himself away from the unbalanced girl, Tyrian dove back for Eliane in one loping jump, the all too brief hail of bullets from the last fighter passing within centimeters of his skin. This time the blonde lunged forward, meeting his knives with her own blade, before stabbing it forward. It slid off his still intact Aura, the grinning bandit using the chance to bring himself closer to the woman. But a raised knee into his torso put an end to the idea, driving the air from his lung in one loud gasp. Her fist at his jaw jerked him back, a hasty dodge afterwards preventing her from skewering his torso.

Although unbalanced, Tyrian still caught the twin blades of Stormflower with his knives, announcing the sable haired young man's entry into the fray. Ren swept the pistols around, landing a series of rapid strikes on the attacker. But for every one that landed, two more were blocked by Tyrian's knives, the force behind them not enough to break past the parries. In seconds, the man's grin returned. And with it, the fight turned around.

Ren nimbly avoided a bladed uppercut, leaving himself open for a punch to his gut. Grunting from the strain, he met the man's slashes as best as he could, but he saw immediately how outclassed he was, barely able to even block the strikes. The flecks of raining metal from his damaged blades made no difference to Tyrian, although the dulled edges were hampering his attacks. Forcing the pistols apart, he brought his foot up to catch Ren's chin, executing a backflip as he sent his opponent reeling.

Nora yelled as she brought Magnhild down on his exposed position, snarling when Tyrian simply rolled to the side despite the shaking ground. This time she blocked his lunge with the handle, although he still managed to force her back. Her grimace turned to revulsion when he leaned over the metal bar, his smiling countenance coming far too close to her face.

"Hello little _girly_ , I just wanna _talk_." he hissed, a giggle escaping him. With a snarl she forced him back, his deft movements showing he wasn't bothered by the shove. With Eliane approaching with her sword held high, and Ren bringing his pistols back up as he reoriented himself, Tyrian merely breathed deeply at the combined threat.

Then a metal bin hit the top of his back, the unexpected attack making the attacker yelp as he lost his footing. He whipped his now furious expression around, just in time for O'Neill to drop his stolen trash can and draw his recovered M9. In four seconds he fired seven rounds, grimacing at the snarling man as he staggered and cried out, but stayed on his feet. Only the last bullet managed to break through his weakened Aura, tearing through his jacket and burrowing into his bicep. A pained snarl accompanied the small spray of blood, making the attacker focus a hate filled look upon the older man.

A flicker of movement caught O'Neill's attention, and he quickly dove to the side, narrowly dodging a strike from Tyrian. Jerking himself around to track the Colonel, he was completely unaware of the arrow whistling through the air until it slammed into his shoulder. The unexpected blow elicited another cry of pain, jerking back with a length of wood wiggling out of his shoulder. Gripping the projectile to snap it off, he glanced to the source of the attack, just in time for the orange haired girl to smile.

Like O'Neill, Tyrian leapt away from his spot as fast as he could, only just avoiding the explosion aimed at his feet. The blast wave still buffeted him, for a second boldly propelling his entire body off the ground. Nevertheless he managed to land on his feet, albeit in an uneven stagger. Hacking out a ragged cough, he whipped back to his foes with his knives at the ready, his expression dimming at the sight that met him.

Eliane had her bow drawn back, a metal arrow in the notch which was focused at him. Ren had both halves of Stormflower pointed in his direction, his deeper breathing having no effect on his steady aim. Nora was still in the same place, holding Magnhild to shoulder height as she grinned confidently. Getting back onto his feet with a groan, O'Neill too trained his handgun on the attacker, the man wincing when he stood up.

"I told you bud, you're heading back to the madhouse. You wanna make it worse for yourself, then go right ahead." O'Neill invited with a gesture, ignoring the brief looks from his ad hoc companions.

Tyrian bared his teeth, gripping his dulled knives tighter as he narrowed his eyes. He appeared to be ready to dash towards them again, until a shrill whistle reached the five combatants.

Although none of the weapons left their target, the eyes of both sides swiveled to the side of the darkening park; the source of the whistle calmly walked into view, his easy canter and unkept appearance unable to disguise his attentive gaze. Neither could they hide the large curved sword he held, the sharp edge trailing close to the grass. The new arrival stopped several meters away, giving the party a once over before switching to the wild eyed intruder.

Tyrian stood up straight, for a moment blinking. Unexpectedly, he grinned. "You're _alive_ , I'm surprised."

"That's right Callows. I'm a little upset you got away after our last spat. How's the leg?" the newcomer asked, putting one foot forward as his posture shifted.

"A little _sore_ still. How is your stab wound? With as _much_ venom as I pumped into you, I'm shocked to see you upright on your _own_ , let alone ready to fight me." Tyrian replied, adopting a rictus of a smile. His footing likewise moved, so he could face him as well. The step backwards he took didn't go unnoticed by anyone present.

The man chuckled, rippling his fingers. "It takes more than some cheap poison to put me down. So, you gonna give up, or do I have to convince you?"

"Hmm..." the attacker rubbed his chin, still grinning. "I'm going to decline your offer. How about instead-"

When Tyrian suddenly shot forward, an arrow and a number of bullets flew out, some coming close to grazing him. Halfway to the party he veered to the side, taking off in a dead sprint into the darkness. Eliane turned to follow, but she only went a few steps before pausing, exhaling slowly while she gripped her sword tighter.

Finally lowering their weapons, Nora and Ren immediately turned to O'Neill, wearing identical looks of concern as the latter held up an offered hand to help. He waved them off, mouthing 'no sirs' before turning to the approaching man, standing up straighter despite a wince. The ragged looking arrival kept his eyes away for a moment, sighing as he glanced to the group.

"You folks okay?" he asked, collapsing his sword to place on his back.

"We're fine, thanks for the save mister..." O'Neill left hanging, replacing his M9 to his holster. The younger members didn't do the same, not aiming at the man but not putting their weapons away either. Nora especially kept a tight grip on Magnhild, though she kept stealing looks at O'Neill for directions.

A friendly smile crossed the man as he stuck out a hand, which O'Neill took to give a hearty shake. "Names Qrow Brawen, wandering Huntsman."

"Crow? Like, caw caw?" O'Neill questioned confusedly, raising his brow as he let go. The man chuckled in response.

"Yeah, that joke got old a long time ago. How about yourself?" he asked, crossing his arms as the blonde returned. Like the former students, she kept her sword in her grip.

"Jack O'Neill, I was a tourist until five minutes ago. You know that creep?" he jabbed a thumb in the vanished attacker's general direction, the gloom of night making it seem as if he vanished into thin air.

Qrow nodded, his smile fading. "Bumped into him on a few occasions. I was gonna go after the guy, but I wanted to check on you guys first."

"We are fine." Eliane spoke, standing a couple meters away. Qrow roamed his eyes up and down her form, as Ren and Nora exchanged frowns. "Thank you for your help."

"No problem miss..." he purposely trailed off, adopting a disarming smile.

"I am Eliane. You're a Huntsman as well." she replied, her scrutinizing gaze examining her counterpart.

Qrow nodded, turning his head to the armed pair watching him. "And you two?"

"They're with me." O'Neill interrupted, his friendly look hardening when he glanced to the others. "And we're getting outta here. Hey Ellie, mind tagging along?"

"Depends." the blonde responded, raising a brow.

"Business. One of you get on the horn, tell the gang, yours and mine, to meet up in one room and stay put, we'll be there in a few. I'll explain everything then." O'Neill commanded, waving for one of them to lead as he pointed to the towering silhouette in the distance.

Ren and Nora exchanged a pensive look, but they complied; the sable haired young man took the lead while the normally happy girl yanked out her scroll, both of them reluctantly collapsing their weapons to sling away. Eliane jerked her hand to transform her sword back into the bow, replacing the weapon to her back as she kept a short distance behind them.

But before the procession could leave, the man spoke up. "If you're heading to Beacon, I'm coming with you."

"Why?" Eliane inquired, a moment before O'Neill could ask the question himself.

Stepping so he could face them, Qrow lowered his arms. "I was heading there anyway, I have a couple nieces enrolled that I wanted to visit."

"Neat." O'Neill said, his features neutral as he turned to speak.

"If you want to trust me, they're the best way to prove I'm not with Callows." Qrow explained, shifting his weight as he kept an even look.

O'Neill thought for a moment, glancing to each of his companions. The boy and the girl shrugged sheepishly, unwilling to argue with the Colonel. Eliane checked her own scroll, pausing her typing. "If he proves to be dangerous, I'll deal with him myself."

"Alright, fair enough." O'Neill waved for the now smirking man to follow. "C'mon Qrowbar, to the emerald city we go."

The dark haired man walked two paces before stopping, giving the older leader a look. "Qrow bar? That ones new."

 _Beacon, thirty minutes later..._

Crowded was the best way to describe the guest dorm room; the brightly lit space was built as a home to accommodate four maturing students for a long span of time, a mirror of the regular student lodging. It was capable of holding several times that number at once, although the wisdom of doing so was questionable at best. It was claustrophobic with all the occupants at rest, but far worse when even one decided to be active.

Such was the case when a flutter of rose pedals marked Ruby's passage from her bed to the door, ending in a tackling bear hug on the first arrival. As a high pitched squeal of excitement left the girl, her victim chuckled as he returned the hug, glancing up to smile at the blonde coming to greet him.

Qrow grunted as he half dragged the red toned girl out of the walkway, making room for Ren and Nora to enter, both giving their friend a surprised look. Immediately after them, Eliane quietly sighed when she walked by, much of the tension in her body language draining away.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby exclaimed, briefly tightening her grip hard enough to make his breath catch.

"Hey Uncle Qrow, What're you doing here?" Yang asked, cheerful yet perplexed while giving him a far more restrained hug.

Returning the hugs as best as he could, Qrow chuckled. "Long story girls, so long I don't know where to start."

After letting go of Yang and Ruby, the disheveled man quietly herded the excited girls further out of the doorway, allowing O'Neill to step him. The Colonel paused to look over the reunion, quietly ah'ing when their confused eyes fell upon him.

"Hey, whaddya know. Small world." he commented, while Ruby exchanged a confused look with a puzzled Qrow. Yang blanched as she recalled where she left him, swiftly glancing to the other blonde in worry.

O'Neill peered over the room, taking a headcount: Blake and Weiss were striding up to check on Nora and Ren, catching up to Jaune and Pyrrha already looking them over. The former's concerned expression deepened when Eliane approached, hood down and expression blank. While Ruby, Yang, and Qrow all seemed to want to mingle in the group themselves, they refrained for the moment. Instead all three glanced to him, the girls showing clear worry. Ironically enough, O'Neill was the only one not visibly armed.

"Guys, what happened?" Jaune worriedly questioned, his hovering brushed off by both his friends and his sister.

The redhead mirrored his concern, which Nora's reply of, "We're okay." failed to stop. Meanwhile Weiss and Blake kept a gap between themselves and the others, both girls sending guarded looks towards the Earther.

With a sigh O'Neill closed the door behind him, making sure it was locked before turning back to the group.

"Okay, may I have your attention." he spoke loudly, enough to cut over the small buzz of conversation. Once all eyes were on him, he first pointed towards the blond. "Did you call the others?" he asked directly, not clarifying what he meant.

Jaune shakily nodded, giving one last worried look to his friends before clearing his throat. "Yes, I radioed them just after the message."

"Fantastic. Now mister Brawen, got some news for you." O'Neill turned to the uncle, crossing his arms with his features blank.

Standing up fully, Qrow took careful note of his nieces uncertain looks. "Alright, I'm listening Jack."

"I'm planning on doing something really dangerous, and I'm gonna need your help. To do that, you need to know some stuff." he began, aware of everybody in the room snapping their heads to him; the only one not showing alarm was the older blonde, who nevertheless narrowed her gaze at him.

"Uh..." Ruby went, sucking in a breath while she shrank back, Yang joining her.

"Go on." Qrow invited neutrally.

"Short version, I'm an alien from another world, a Colonel on my planet's armed forces at that. I and a bunch of others on a spaceship came here to negotiate a trade deal and hopefully an alliance with Remnant. Oh, and these four got involved in this mess a few years back, and the others were roped into this mess a week ago." he concluded by pointing towards the immediately cringing team JNPR. It took mere seconds for the cringe to spread to team RWBY however, with only Eliane immune to the mood.

Qrow was silent for a moment, expression blank. When he glanced to the girls, they flinched. Upon checked the others in turn, Blake slapped her face to sum up the general attitude, her pained sigh being shared by several others.

"Creative." he said after a moment, cracking a smile that no one returned. Chuckling while he crossed his arms, he flopped his head to Ruby and Yang, both girls wincing. "Okay, where'd you find this guy, and how much did you pay him? Because seriously, this is a good practical joke. Weird coincidence that I bumped into him at the park, but hey, stuff happens."

"Uncle Qrow..." Yang shivered, all but shaking in place.

"He's, ah..." Ruby was quaking, cringing at the situation.

"Its, um..." Jaune tried to say, glancing to his teammates for support, but finding none.

Ren sighed, squeezing his eyes shut. "This is bad."

"I'll admit." Qrow held up his hands, easygoing when he waved to JNPR's general direction. "You have me on them. I remember hearing about some missing students from here a while back, and if they are the same people, then welp, I got nothing. Good story though."

Eliane raised an eyebrow. "You doubt them?"

"Oh yeah." Qrow agreed, glancing towards the stone faced O'Neill. "Because cmon, aliens? Aliens don't exist."

There was a flash of white light in the center of the room, vanishing as quickly as it appeared. In the time it took for the closest occupants to rub their eyes, the trio of new arrivals took stock of their location.

"Colonel, we came as soon as we could. Did something happen..." Carter trailed off, widening her eyes while she sucked in a breath. Daniel was silent, glancing towards the stunned looks of the crowded room and sighing, moaning under his breath while he squeezed his eyes shut. Teal'c kept his composure, calmly offering an acknowledging nod towards the group. All three were still clad in street clothes, although each was equipped with a radio.

The man kept smiling, staring blankly at the arrivals as the two teams seemed to shrink back in even greater embarrassment. When he glanced to O'Neill, the Colonel nodded solemnly. Qrow sighed wistfully, giving a small shake of his head.

"I am way too sober for this." he muttered, rubbing his brow.

"You and me both. Anyway." O'Neill stepped forward, clapping his hands to catch the combined group's attention. "Cut a long story short, we got jumped in the city park. Some whackjob with a pair of knives went after us, and Qrow here helped drive the psycho off. Ellie, fill em in please."

"His name is Tyrian Callows." Eliane duly reported, ignoring her brother going slack jawed at the friendly greeting. "He's a bandit with a fifty thousand lien bounty. He's wanted in three kingdoms for many counts of murder, arson, kidnapping, rape, theft, assault, graffiti, torture-"

"Yeah yeah we get the point." O'Neill interrupted with a wave, earning a sour look from her. "Skip to the part where he attacked. You two." he pointed to Ren and Nora. "Help her fill in the details. What happened that you saw."

Elaine took a silent breath, glancing towards her nonplussed brother. "Jack and I were having a conversation, where he explained who he was and what he was doing here. He was reluctant to divulge any information at first, but once I told him about the things you already shared to me, he opened up. These two arrived just as we concluded the chat."

Jaune pointed to O'Neill, mouth agape as he turned from him to his sister repeatedly. In contrast Daniel coughed into a fist, settling a suspicious look upon the Colonel that made the man bristle.

"Um, yeah, that's about it." Ren began guardedly, after O'Neill gestured at him. "Then this Tyrian guy attacked, we fought him off, then this man here." he pointed to Qrow. "Showed up, and scared him away. That's about everything."

"So why are we all in one room?" Blake spoke up, inhaling when a number of eyes fell on her. "I don't understand why we're consolidating like this, and here of all places."

"I agree sir, and why'd you call us down here?" Carter asked carefully, frowning at the officer.

When the gazes of thirteen people were upon him, O'Neill took his hands out from his pockets. "That creep was targeting you two."

One pointed finger drew the collective attention towards Ren and Nora, the orange haired girl confusedly pointing at her chest.

"How strange that guy with a rap like Tyrian _just so happened_ to jump us when we were in a public park, when its getting into nighttime, where's there's fewer witnesses, all while in the middle of a city that has a hefty bounty on his head. He didn't hold back on hitting Ellie or me, but he did for the both of you." he explained, glancing to make sure everyone was listening. "Now, unless you two were rolling with some organized crime before you left, I think he has no apparent reason to go after you. Unless he knows something he shouldn't."

The room was silent for a moment, the many occupants exchanging a wide range of looks. It was broken by Teal'c speaking up. "What evidence do you have to support this assumption?"

"I don't. But my gut tells me there's something going on." O'Neill admitted, crossing his arms.

After glancing over the newest arrival, Carter shifted her footing. "Sir, if there _is_ something, then we should contact Ozpin."

"I agree." Daniel joined in, standing akimbo as he looked over Qrow. "Besides, you already violated the gag order by dragging him in. Speaking of, who are you again?"

"Names Qrow, and I'm these girls' uncle." the man replied, jabbing a thumb towards Ruby and Yang. "And I'll be honest, I'm mostly in the dark here. You knew about all this already?" he directed to the girls, both of whom shrunk back.

The blonde gulped, holding up her hands placatingly. "Its, ah, yeah. Weiss started all this." she quickly replied, watching the white haired girl do a double take.

"Yang!" Ruby half yelped, grabbing the blonde's arm to forcibly shake. It had nothing on Weiss herself, who leveled a glare on her.

" _Anyway_." O'Neill said loudly, silencing the group. "We are going to Ozpin. Just not yet."

"What does that mean?" Nora went in confusion, glancing to Pyrrha and Ren for puzzled shrugs.

"Means I'm going after the creep myself, and I'd appreciate help." O'Neill stated flatly, nodding towards the now blinking Qrow.

Although not the only one to be visibly surprised, Daniel was the most successful in getting his mood across; he swiftly crossed the room to plant a hand on the Colonel's shoulder, forcefully dragging him to the corner. When he spoke, his soft response came out closer to a hiss.

"Jack, what're you thinking?" he half growled.

"I know what I'm doing Daniel, don't freak out." O'Neill calmly replied, speaking normally. A glance at the others told him the obvious: the bespectacled man's attempt at discretion was a glaring failure, with everyone staring blankly at the two.

Daniel gritted his teeth. "I know you know what you're doing, that's the problem. The question is _why_."

"My own reasons Danny, now calm down." O'Neill brushed the man's strong grip off, ignoring his fuming while he strolled across the room, pausing in the middle to glance at the others. "Closet right?"

"Y-yes si-yeah." Pyrrha nodded quickly, giving the others a mutually nervous look.

Weiss reluctantly stepped out of the way, allowing O'Neill to swing the closet door open to dig inside. As he did however, Teal'c took a step closer. "I will accompany you O'Neill."

"Thanks." was his muffled answer, followed by him leaving the tiny space with a long staff in hand, which he tossed to the Jaffa.

"I will as well." Eliane announced, turning to give a balking Jaune a look, holding up a hand to steady him. "If your performance in the park is any indicator, then you will need my help."

O'Neill paused for a moment in thought, a sling in his grip. Finally he shrugged. "Alright, you're in." he said, turning to Qrow last. "You?"

He sighed, giving his nieces an apologetic look. "Yeah, sure."

"Thanks. Carter." he spoke, stopping the blonde Earther before she could open her mouth. "You're in charge while we're gone. Everyone, do what she says, but don't leave this room." he pointed to the floor with a Zat in hand, which he then tossed to Teal'c. "Stay calm and wait here. If we're not back by sunrise, take everybody to the _Prometheus_ and call Ozpin, either order works." he ordered, slinging the borrowed P90 across his torso with several replacement magazines.

"Ye-yes sir." Carter nodded, features winkled as he made his way across the room with his chosen partners in tow. Daniel had his arms crossed, firmly scowling at the Colonel for the entire walk.

"Alright everyone, wish us luck." O'Neill announced, giving one more backwards look before opening the door, Teal'c and Eliane following without a second glance, but Qrow paused to give Ruby and Yang another hug to assuage their fears.

Once the wandering Huntsman closed the door, O'Neill waved him on while he examined his ad hoc party; a blonde huntress with a bow, a ragged looking man who smelled of whiskey, a Jaffa in street clothes and a staff, and an off duty Colonel with a P90. The combination made him quietly snort. Only Qrow spared a glance back, showing worry that he could fully understand.

Ten steps later and the door opened again, one occupant escaping from several muffled voices to jog after them. Qrow, Teal'c, and Eliane all turned around to check, while O'Neill let out a quiet sigh.

"Kid, what'd I just say." he said laconically as he turned around.

Jaune cleared his throat before standing at attention, the black and silver sword on his belt waggling with the movement. Despite the schooled calm he sported, there was an unmistakable undercurrent of fear in his expression.

"Sir." he acknowledged, swallowing a lump when Eliane narrowed her eyes. "I'm here to-"

"Do nothing but get your butt back in that room." O'Neill interrupted, no trace of bemusement on his expression, while he let the P90 hang limply.

A low shudder worked its way through the blond. "With all due respect sir, taking backup is extremely prudent in this situation."

"That's why these three are coming along, and that's exactly why you're staying behind." O'Neill responded immediately, his brow creased.

Qrow crossed his arms, although he had a sympathetic look. "Look kid, I like your enthusiasm, but this isn't the time. This isn't some street thug we're dealing with, Tyrian's a professional bad guy. If you tag along, you're only going to get hurt."

"The way you are trained will not work here, you will only be an obstacle in the upcoming fight. We do not need a liability." Eliane spoke flatly, making raw hurt cross the blond's features for a moment.

"That's why I was going to offer my team-" Jaune began, only for O'Neill to swipe a hand at him.

"Were you not listening when I said the fruitcake guy was targeting your buds? Now what do they and you have in common? Stay in that room, and if he slips onto the grounds, _then_ you can play hero." the Colonel dismissed, a huff leaving him.

"I concur. The defensive advantage of Beacon renders most threats moot." Teal'c agreed in a monotone, resting the base of his borrowed staff on the floor.

"But-" Jaune held out his hands pleadingly, gulping. "Sir, we can help."

O'Neill narrowed his eyes. "Any of you come along, and you'll make this whole thing pointless. This is the last time I'm going to tell you. Do I need to make that an official order Arc?"

Jaune sucked in a breath, shrinking back while his expression quivered. "No sir."

"Good, now git." O'Neill pointed to the door, and with a shuddering breath Jaune turned to walk away, his uneven breathing hinting at his temper.

The ad hoc group watched for a moment, silent until the young man closed the door behind him. Once the lock clicked, Qrow gave O'Neill a guarded look.

"What was that?" he asked lowly, dropping his arms.

"A dumb kid with delusions of grandeur, and coincidentally a member of the same military as me. No, they were not drafted, they joined on their own free will, despite my vocal protests." O'Neill replied in the same way, sullenly grumbling. The attitude didn't abate when he gave a sidelong glance at the only female in his party. "Sorry for chewing out your brother."

"I am unhappy about your methods, but I do agree with you." Eliane said, finally taking her gaze away from the door. "None of them in that room are ready to face this threat, and I already lost my brother once."

"When we're finished here you can have him back. Hey, take them all why don't you, they're done with the SGC the moment this missions over. In the meantime, let's go." O'Neill gestured down the hallway, only for Qrow to clear his throat.

"That ways a shortcut." he pointed in the opposite direction, making O'Neill deflate. "And while while we have some time, mind filling me on why we're not calling the cops, the Beacon staff, or anybody else?"

Striding to overtake the party, O'Neill kept a moderate pace down the guest dorms, briefly testing the door to make sure it was locked. That accomplished, he moved on without looking back.

"Dunno if you met Ozpin before, but I have, and he's a wily type. He's keeping some nasty secrets, and I wanna know how bad they are before we commit to being friends." was O'Neill's reply.

"That does not seem to be an effective justification for keeping Ozpin in the dark." Teal'c countered, giving Qrow a look when he pulled out a scroll.

"Texting the girls. And I agree, that's not a good reason." he said, frowning at O'Neill's back.

Out of their sight, O'Neill sighed. "Ozpin rubs me the wrong way. Can't put my finger on what it could be, but there's something about him that's setting off my 'don't trust' alarms. And I get the feeling this Tyrian guy is part of it. I'm gonna find out what it is, before we really screw the pooch."

O'Neill didn't know it, but the second he finished his sentence, a new light insistently blinked on the headmaster's desk.

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 **A/N: if you don't mind, would you leave a review? Even if its only to complain, that way I can fix this story.**


	21. Patience Wearing Thin

**A/N: Okay guys, first I just want to say thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and followed Not What You Expected. I'm grateful, honest.**

 **Second, the original plan was to have all this happen in one chapter.** _ **But**_ **, I managed to hit 10k words and still going, so I needed to break it in half. So be ready for a new chapter shortly.**

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 _"Trust me, I know almost exactly what I'm doing."_

O'Neill's fist landed in the middle of the suit wearing thug's face, staggering him hard enough for the Colonel to dive forward, tackling the armed man to the ground. A rattle of gunfire left the thug's pistol looking contraption, hitting nothing but the walls on its way out of his hands, tumbling safely out of his grip. The thug's target didn't seem to notice, being preoccupied by a pair of similarly clad men who were clearly in trouble.

Landing in a thrashing heap, he drew back to punch the struggling man again, and again, and again. O'Neill wasn't holding back much, yet the suited thug kept yelping in pain with every blow, blindly throwing his own hands out trying to force him off. With a snarl he broke the man's nose, finally getting him to go limp.

Taking a second to breathe from all his exertions, the Colonel rose to his feet, groaning while he took stock of the situation. He ignored the first and second men's pained moans, knowing they were rendered harmless via the time honored technique of being shot in the legs.

Qrow was fine; surrounded by a small crowd of unconscious suited men in various poses while stumbling to the bar, but otherwise in a good shape, lacking any fresh bullet holes thanks to O'Neill. Teal'c was in a similar condition, leaving his brief melee in one stoic piece. Although not before passing a man who was moaning in agony, which earned the luckless guy a hard smack from the staff's base. Eliane still looked distinctly unhappy with the location, even leaving out the two unconscious women she left behind. One was lying facedown with an arm bent the wrong way, the other had her head buried in the wall, both were limp save for some shallow breathing.

Stretching out, O'Neill winced at a spike of pain in his knee. There was plenty in his chest too, but that wasn't something to get concerned about. Gingerly avoiding another unconscious bouncer he broke a stool on, he strode across the eerily quiet dance floor towards the bar, going around the incapacitated remains of the club's security detail.

Unlike Qrow, he wasn't after a tall glass some frightened patron left behind, but a sharply dressed barman slumped against the front counter. He was still breathing fortunately, hissing while he delicately felt the arrow sticking out of his shoulder. Upon noticing the incognito Colonel and two of his companions coming to a stop in front of him, the bearded barman put on a hate filled glare. "You... better pay... for this."

"Yeah, sure. If you hadn't flipped out when we dropped in, none of this would've happened." O'Neill explained loftily, nudging a rocket launcher firmly out of his reach. "This is on you buddy."

When a strobe light flicked on in a dizzying flashing spectacle, Eliane glanced up to frown. In one smooth motion she notched a fresh arrow, drew it back to aim, and let loose. A brief shower of sparks put an end to the display, as well as making the barman snarl.

"Hey, that's expensive!" he gasped, immediately grabbing his injured shoulder.

Slamming the glass down, Qrow sighed happily before turning away, a fresh spring in his step when he rejoined the group. The disapproving frowns from Teal'c and Eliane made him shrug, raising a brow at them.

"Really. Say, how much money do you got sunk into this joint?" O'Neill asked devilishly, grinning while he felt the grip of his strapped P90.

As if on cue another light came on, this one flashing in a multicolored display. As the closest Teal'c turned to face it, waving Eliane down before raising his staff. The top bulb split open, energy crackling over the tip loud enough to echo in the cavernous room. A bolt of searing plasma left the weapon, crossing the distance to completely obliterate the strobe light in a flash of sparks.

"Okay, okay!" the barman cried, sticking a hand out with his palm splayed. "Just, stop breaking the lights, they're brand new."

"Now we're talking." Qrow commented approvingly, arms crossed and weapon slung away. He hadn't drawn the sword once since they left Beacon, resorting to fisticuffs during the brawl to great effect.

Backing away, O'Neill let Teal'c step up to face the barman, his expression a hard mask. "Tell us the whereabouts of Tyrian Callows."

"Don't know him." he replied immediately. But a few seconds of Teal'c glaring made him groan. "I know _of_ the guy, but I don't deal with the kind of crazy that whacko has. Just been keeping my ears open if or when trouble comes raining down."

"And?" O'Neill prompted expectantly.

The barman sucked in a breath. "You'll find him holed up in the docks, either palling around with the White Fang or running solo. Those faunus stick together, so I'd say try your luck with them."

"You know, I did suggest checking that place out first." Qrow said dryly, briefly sending a weighted stare towards O'Neill. "Anyway, care to be more specific?" he inquired, giving the numerous bottles on the far wall a longing glance.

"All I know. No one deals with his type for long, either the law gets 'em or he does. That's it." the barman hissed.

Exchanging a look with the others, O'Neill shrugged. "Pretty sure that's all we're gonna get out of him. What do you say?"

"Acceptable." Teal'c rumbled, clicking the staff to close the top.

"Good enough. Least he's in the city." Qrow agreed, dropping his arms to shrug.

O'Neill nodded. "Works for me. Now let's get out of here before why is Ellie missing?"

The two men immediately glanced around the room to make the same observation as him: Eliane was nowhere to be found. Frowning unhappily, O'Neill turned to raise a brow at the barman, who winced indignantly at the silent accusation. Deepening his look made the man sigh, thumping his head against the wall.

A set of footsteps coming from a door beside the bar caught the men's attentions, though the trio relaxed when the hooded blonde left the entrance with a small grey box in her grip. Stopping beside them, she unceremoniously dropped the clattering prize to the floor. She finished by giving it a stomp, thoroughly crushing the fragile looking machine.

"Is that..." the barman trailed off, his quivering eyes wide at the destroyed box.

"Your central computer node yes. I disabled all the phone lines and erased the security footage for the past two days as well. Your network security needs updating, badly." Eliane replied flatly, tapping her boot to get bits of plastic off.

Both O'Neill and Qrow blinked in surprise, the former whistling impressively.

"Thorough." Teal'c noted with approval. The barman groaned despairingly.

"I also tipped off the police to an illegal Dust shipment that will arrive tomorrow, it was heading to this club." she added, steeling her gaze when she turned to O'Neill. "I told you I don't like places like this. Now you can see why."

Inhaling deeply the Colonel brought his hands together, a variety of expressions flashing over him.

"Alrighty, so this did end up working out, great." he sighed deeply, spinning towards the door to point. "Okay kids, back to the yellow brick road. By the way, what'd he mean by faunus?"

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Pyrrha was worried, very much so. The redhead sat on one of the beds with her hands in her lap, unable to keep entirely still. For the life of her she couldn't keep track of the conversation going just a few meters away, too enveloped in her feelings to really care about the subject matter. She wanted to get involved, to leave the nasty lump in her guts behind and simply enjoy the company of her friends. But she couldn't.

"Not quite all of them, we had a run in with one who wasn't what I'd call nice." Carter explained to the uninformed audience, laying a hand on the borrowed P90 beside her once she finished gesturing.

Given the situation they found themselves in, most of the occupants chose to sit on the beds. Carter and a sullen Daniel were on one, with Yang and Blake on the opposite side, closest to the door. To the side of them Ren, Nora, and Jaune had a makeshift seat, with the latter utterly silent since he returned to the room. Pyrrha's chosen spot was held by Ruby, and on the same side as the Earthers Weiss sat alone on a bed, facing the adults. Without exception, everyone in the room had a weapon.

"But they pretend to be gods too, like the Goa'uld." Weiss pointed out, frowning in confusion.

Glancing beside her, Carter nudged Daniel (who was occupied by massaging his face), making him sigh when he looked up. "They told us as much, the Asgard only do that because there's no other way for them to guide humans on protected planets. Thor doesn't like being worshipped, but he knows he can't stop it, so he uses the god angle to get his message across."

"Still, its a little hypocritical for them to be against the Goa'uld for claiming to be gods." Weiss continued, Blake nodding in agreement.

"The Asgard don't like the Goa'uld for a lot more than that." Ren spoke up, unmoving from his seat. "The god claim is a major issue, but far from the most important."

"Yeah, Thor doesn't have many kind words for them." Carter agreed, something flashing over her face for a split second.

Blake took a deep breath, leaning back on the bed. "Well, thanks for answering my question."

"Yeah, that cleared stuff up. This short though..." Yang shook her head, huffing at the revelation they were given.

"No problem, not like there's anything else we should be doing." Daniel muttered ruefully.

"Well, least you had a good day, right?" Ruby checked, her features darkening when she saw Weiss looking away.

"I did anyway. Got the chance to look over several Atlesian androids, mechanically speaking they're remarkably simple once you understand the basics. I'm not entirely certain if I can reprogram one right now, but I'm sure I could if I needed to." Carter replied, idly moving the gun to her lap.

"Yeah, met a supposed history buff who has a decent sized collection... and none of it was cataloged. Found out he's only researching history to settle a bet." the doctor groaned, taking off his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. His own P90 was in arms reach, but unlike Carter he didn't keep touching the weapon every minute or so.

"So today sucked, but that's okay." Yang summarized, a grin coming over her. "You can either mope, Thor look at the bright side." she finished, earning a dry stare from both Daniel and Blake. Weiss did the honors; she snatched up a pillow and threw it, smacking the blonde in the face hard enough to knock her over.

While they talked Pyrrha stole glances at Jaune, anxiously noting his posture. The blond payed even less attention to the gathering than her, hunched over with his hands intertwined, staring a hole in the floor nearby her seat. Although his bangs obscured much of his face, she could easily tell his expression was one of sullen anger. His exposed thumbs idly moved to and fro, as if they were grappling with each other. He hadn't spoken a word since he flopped onto the seat, all he did was breathe and play with his thumbs.

A beep from a scroll caught the redhead's attention, peering over to the source while the room fell silent. Hesitantly opening the device, Ruby sighed dejectedly at the icon of whoever was calling her. Her finger hovered over the display for a moment before landing in a tap.

"Hey Val." she greeted tiredly, glancing around the crowded room.

" _Hi Ruby, sorry for calling this late._ " went a voice Pyrrha recognized, recalling the successful dialing back on Earth. " _Um, you busy right now? Thought I should check in before dropping by._ "

Ruby sighed. "I am actually, sorry."

Valentine groaned over the line. " _That sucks, and I finally have some free time after this giant test marathon too. Just wanted to ask if you wanted to hang out tonight, I invited Oscar too._ "

"I'd love to, but like I said, I have something going on right now. Tomorrow then?" Ruby asked, sparing an apprehensive look towards her companions.

" _Yeah, sure, tomorrow. Later then, good luck with what you're doing._ " Valentine spoke glumly, the scroll chirping a moment later.

Sighing as she closed the device, the red toned girl leaned back once she put it away. Carter clearing her throat made Ruby glance over, the blonde woman giving her a curious look.

"That was Valentine Trail, he's a first year here. He doesn't know anything about, you know." the huntress gestured around rather than finishing.

"Thanks. But unless I'm mistaken, I've heard his voice before. During the test dial back on Earth. You two were there too." Carter pointed two fingers, one aimed at Weiss, the other at Pyrrha.

Finally broken from her mood, the redhead snapped her gaze over while automatically straightening up, just in time for the white haired girl to cough.

"Yeah, we um, took Valentine and his team out for a training exercise as a cover so we could find the gate." Weiss quickly explained, her throat bobbing with her gulp.

"Yep, just tagging along so we could go hunt for you guys is all." Yang jumped in, swinging her fist through the air in forced cheer.

"Its okay, I'm not upset about your methods. You did what you had to do." Carter spoke fast, waving off any protests. Daniel sighed again, but whether it was because of his teammate or the ongoing situation was unclear.

Nora looked between the speakers, a sly grin coming over her when she settled on Ruby. "I think Val boy here has a crush on you."

"What?! Not at all, no!" Ruby immediately denied, waving her hands about almost far enough to smack the redhead. "He's just a friend, that's it."

Despite Ren elbowing her ribs, Nora's grin increased. "Nah ah, he has a crush, I know one when I see it."

"Well..." Blake hummed, pointedly looking away.

"Val doesn't have a crush on me." Ruby declared with a jab at the others, amidst Yang's snickering.

"I think Oscar has one on me, but hasn't done anything about it. I think his teammates won't let him get a date, poor guy." the blonde shook her head in apparent pity.

"Plus you're taken already." Weiss added smugly, smirking at her revenge.

"I am?" Yang went, turning to her friend with a brow raised. Suddenly she widened her eyes. "Ooh, right, Kyle... Cirrus I think? Um..." scratching the back of her head, she let out a weak chuckle. "I, uh, forgot to mention we broke up like four days ago."

"Aw, I liked his baking." Ruby said dejectedly, slumping.

"Heartbreaker." Daniel commented dryly, falling back on the bed to stare at the ceiling. "Uninterested historians, leaving authorities out of the loop, and schoolyard gossip. This is my life now. _Verdammte kinder._ " he muttered, wincing when Carter rapped a knuckle on his knee.

"Speaking of dating, what about you guys?" Yang turned around, glancing towards Nora in particular. "Jaune said there's six billion people on Earth, there has to be a few worth checking out."

Ren coughed into a hand. "We don't get out much. It took close to a year just to be able to head into Colorado Springs unsupervised."

"Cheyenne Mountain and Area Fifty One have a lot of cute guys though. There was this one who used to work in the mess, I flirted with him a lot a while back. But you know, that wasn't ever going anywhere, so oh well." Nora half rambled, finishing with a clap on her thighs.

"How abhorrent." Weiss muttered ruefully, wincing a second later when she saw Daniel flopping his head up towards the girls, giving her an unhappy look.

Ruby suddenly frowned, turning to the redhead beside. "Hey Pyrrha, are you seeing anyone?"

Jaune abruptly stood up, taking a second to stretch his arms. The fact he drew the groups collective gaze went disregarded. Without looking at anyone, he strolled across the room at a stately pace, one hand resting on the base of his sword.

"Getting some air." he said softly, not pausing until he reached the door.

"Right, don't go far Arc." Carter ordered cautiously, raising a brow when he nodded.

"Yes ma'am." he replied without looking, barely an octave louder than before.

Glancing around for a second, Carter latched her gaze on the redhead. "Nikos, go with him. If anything happens get back here right away."

"Yes ma'am." Pyrrha was on her feet in a heartbeat, all but sprinting after Jaune when he left the room. She barely slowed long enough to swing the door closed behind her, the latch softly clicking shut.

Once outside she had to jog to catch up to Jaune's long strides, the blond not appearing to notice her until she was right beside him. Even then it took grabbing his arm to make him finally stop, forcing him to whip around to face her.

"What're you doing?" Pyrrha demanded, all of her attention locked onto him.

Jaune huffed, rolling his head over his shoulders. "I'm going after them. You're welcome to tag along."

"Tag along-" Pyrrha shook her head, running a hand down her face. When she looked up again, his expression hadn't changed. "Colonel O'Neill specifically ordered us to stay in that room." she said forcefully, jabbing a finger back the way they came.

"And how many times has he disobeyed orders for a good reason?" he replied, crossing his arms. His determined look wasn't flickering at all.

"This is completely different. You were right there when Ren and Nora reported what happened, now how can you compare this to SG-1 saving the Earth?" she snapped, more harshly than what she wanted.

Jaune narrowed his eyes.

"Because they need us." he said lowly, turning to slowly walk towards the window. "We've been here for almost a week, and what have we done? Just hang out, practicing some swordplay, and wasting time. Now we have a chance to show O'Neill we have what it takes, and we're busy gossiping instead."

Features wrinkling, Pyrrha could only stare when his hands came to a rest on the windowsill. "Do you even hear yourself? This isn't a contest, lives are on the line here."

"I know." he muttered, facing away.

Swallowing a lump, Pyrrha reached out to his shoulder, planning on trying to talk him out of his inane idea. She didn't realize what he was doing until it was too late; a quick shove opened the window to the outside, letting in a cold gust which made her involuntarily shiver. It was a delay of only a couple seconds, time enough for him to grab the sill to vault feet first out of the opening.

"Jaune!" she cried out, dashing to the window to half fling herself over the ledge, fear written all over her expression. The second story drop he willingly took ended in a roll, the young man releasing a pained grunt before rising. As she watched he ran off in a jog, vanishing into the darkness.

Grimacing, Pyrrha sucked in a breath while she clutched the ledge. For a moment she tested the sill, guardedly peering over the low drop. But when she tried putting some of her weight on the frame, the redhead sighed and backed away, rubbing her brow.

"Whatever you thinking?" she murmured to herself.

"The worst ideas are the funnest."

Whirling herself around, Pyrrha had Miló and Akoúo in her grip in an instant, briefly freezing at the sight of a stranger barely two meters away. She tensed up regardless, her face a hard mask. Though she was distracted aplenty, the redhead was fully aware they were alone a moment ago.

"Hiya." greeted the girl with a small wave, gripping her elbows once she finished. She was leaning against the wall with one foot resting atop the other, completely at ease. "You know, if he wanted out so bad, there's a set of stairs right over there. Oh well, hindsight."

Pyrrha took a step back, keeping her shield between her and the oddly familiar goat horned girl. "Who are you?"

"Oh, where are my manners." the girl in the blooming white and red outfit left the wall to stand up straight, before bending over and throwing one arm to the side; an exaggerated curtsy. "I am Masculum Ovis Aries. Liar, cheater, and prankster extraordinaire, hailing from the lands of ashes and broken dreams. At your service." she spoke formally, standing up again with a grin. "You can shorten that to Mask if you want, but only my friends get to call me Ram. Because of the horns." she concluded by tapping on the grey horn sprouting from her scalp.

"Yeah, I know about you, now why are you in this hallway?" Pyrrha questioned tightly, gripping her weapons tighter. The girl appeared unarmed, but that made no difference to her.

"Got lost, this place is a maze you know. Correct me if I'm wrong, but were you on the VIP landing pad the other day?" Masculum asked innocently, leaning to rest against the wall once more.

"How'd you get in here?" Pyrrha continued, moving so she had room to fall back.

Masculum snorted bemusedly. "Never tell the truth to those who aren't worthy is one of my mottos. Now, if you were to answer my question first, that'd be different."

Letting out a breath through clenched teeth, Pyrrha narrowed her eyes. "I was there yeah. Now how'd you get into this building?"

"You say that like its hard. The guest dorms are left open most of the time, but even if they're locked, it's pretty easy to find another entrance. The staff don't really care if students come in here for some quiet time. For studying of course." Masculum explained evenly, her smirk unwavering. "I just gotta say, I'm a huge fan of Pumpkin Pete's, but they haven't had a good mascot since you were replaced."

"Thanks." Pyrrha muttered, finally lowering her weapons. Without putting either one away she began stepping in reverse, unwilling to put her back to the girl.

The faunus nodded, still keeping her smirk. "Say, you're friends with Ruby Rose, right?"

"Yeah, have been for a while." she replied, making no attempt to hide her suspicion. The odds of this girl being here by coincidence were too low for her to even think about.

"Then you know what she did." she said offhandedly.

Pyrrha stopped, leveling a hard stare on her. "Excuse me?"

"Oh c'mon, its one of the worst kept secrets around here." Masculum shrugged off, the glint in her magenta eyes sharply changing. "I've been wanting a first hand account from the girl herself, but so far no luck."

"What're you talking about?" she questioned coldly.

"Hold on a sec. You mean, you _don't know?_ " the goat horned girl tipped her head back, covering her mouth to hide her toothy grin. "Not a very good friend, are you?"

"I asked you a question." Pyrrha reminded, tightening the grip of her weapon.

Masculum's smirk grew, the girl pushing herself off the wall to cross her hands behind her back. "Everybody knows about the Battle of Beacon, all you have to do is look around to see how the boondoggle turned out. But do you know what kicked it off?"

"I know the broad strokes." Pyrrha replied, tensing when the faunus began to step closer to her.

Pausing a body's length away, the girl briefly shifted her weight from heels to toes, broadly grinning.

"If you really wanna find out, then tomorrow go to room twenty seven in the main dorm, eleven ay-em sharp. Be there, and be ready for enlightenment." she said enigmatically, finishing with a wink. A quick twist of her feet whisked the girl around, taking off in a cheer filled walk.

"What makes you think I'll come?" Pyrrha challenged.

"You will when you ask Ruby about the Vytal Festival." was Masculum's reply, not even slowing down.


	22. The Lines Intersect

Stretching away into the foreboding darkness, the empty street felt uninhabited for a long time now. Not one pedestrian or vehicle blemished the empty roadway, nothing that could break the firm grip night held over the area. The sole force to challenge the night were several streetlights, spaced periodically to show an outline of the street. But none were bright enough to banish the looming shadows lurking in every nook and cranny, each capable of hiding a dangerous threat.

Looking down the uninviting street with his hands on his hips, O'Neill took a breath. "Looks like the place."

"Indeed." Teal'c murmured, Qrow sighing in agreement.

After sparing a questioning look behind him, the Colonel walked off in a turgid pace, his intent obvious. Teal'c inhaled before trotting after him with the staff carried at his side, while Eliane walked after the men, bow in hand as she roamed her eyes over the area. With another sigh Qrow strode after them, idly reaching up to yank the weapon from his back.

P90 in his grip, O'Neill crept along the side of the buildings, continually checking behind him for the others. Listening intently for any sign of danger, he didn't let the uneasy silence of the area get to him, no matter what tiny noises reached his ears. What stopped him however was hearing the multiple sets of footsteps being cut off, making him slowly turn around with both hands on his weapon.

While Qrow and Teal'c briefly checked their surroundings, Eliane had her knees bent in a crouch, one gloved hand daubing at a blackish discoloration on the sidewalk. Bringing up the hand, she gave the offered fingers a whiff. Heedless of the men staring, she rose to her feet to stare at the pavement, her softly glowing eyes trailing off towards the closest warehouse.

"Well?" O'Neill softly asked; his voice was quiet, but the sound echoed without anything to drown it out.

Eliane focused her gaze on a side entrance, the plain metal door only visible due to a small light above it. "The blood is still fresh. He's close."

Qrow switched between the door and her, jabbing a finger at it when he stopped at her. She nodded once. When he twirled a single finger in a circle, she frowned and repeated the expression.

O'Neill trudged towards the indicated spot, pausing before it to glance over his ad hoc party. "Guys ready?"

Teal'c took a spot facing the door, raising the staff to point at the center. Qrow rolled his head over his shoulders, letting his own weapon hang a few centimeters from the pavement. Eliane jerked her hand to turn her bow into a sword, holding to the side as she stared at the entrance.

"Sure about this Jack?" the huntsman asked softly.

"More or less yeah. If this isn't it, we'll just check the next one." O'Neill replied in the same way, testing the handle before moving right in front of the door. Briefly inhaling, he brought up a leg to kick the door, a resounding crash booming out when it gave in.

Flicking on the inbuilt flashlight, O'Neill carefully entered the all encompassing darkness, sweeping the tiny cone of light from side to side. Every step he took was slow and measured, his boots softly tapping on the concrete inside. The utter lack of input riled his instincts, setting off a number of his internal alarms. He felt his heart thudding in his chest, a constant beat which seemed to underscore the danger he found himself in.

He only went as far as a meter, unwilling to leave the faint but definitely present light coming from the lone entranceway. Nor was he inclined to leave the view of his companions, who were his only hope if something went wrong. Breathing deeply, he risked glancing over his shoulder to make doubly sure they were still at the door. Doing so let him catch a glint of a reflection right beside the entrance, giving him the perfect reason to back out of the smothering darkness.

"What do you got?" Qrow whispered, staying outside.

O'Neill didn't reply right away; he reached out to feel the thing he spotted, his fingers ghosting over the surface to confirm what it was. Once his suspicions were confirmed, he glanced out and grinned.

"Light switch." he answered, bringing the gun wielding arm to wave them away first. Taking a breath, he covered his eyes and hit the tiny switch.

The periphery of his vision stung for a moment, even as he heard the others cautiously filing inside. Now covered, O'Neill slowly withdrew his arm, letting his eyes adjust as fast as they could. It only took a few seconds for him to return to normal, allowing him drop the arm to turn around, although he had to blink away a couple spots in his eyes.

Mentally asking who puts a master switch by the side exit, O'Neill peered over the sizable yet largely empty warehouse. There were a few large crates placed in the corner as well as a handful of man sized crates scattered about, but it was strangely empty for a building of this size. The hairs on his neck bristled when he realized there was nothing to give them cover.

"It appears abandoned." Teal'c observed, a few meters away with the staff aimed where he was looking. Eliane held her sword in a two handed grip as she swept around, her face a hard mask.

In a sharp contrast, Qrow idly twirled his own sword around, pacing between the two. "Something's not right."

"Yeah, who leaves a warehouse this big empty? You can fit a couple eff-sixteens and crews in here with room to spare." O'Neill agreed, clicking the P90's light off as he too cautiously trotted further inside.

"A what? Never mind, is anyone else getting a bad feeling?" he asked instead, pausing when the blonde crouched down again, one hand outstretched to circle a tiny set of splotches on the floor.

When she rose to her feet, the woman slowly scanned her surroundings. "He knows we're here."

"Got it in one, huh. I figured we'd need to go through two or three buildings before we found the freak. Lucky us." O'Neill commented, catching Qrow in the middle of a wince.

Teal'c swept the staff from side to side, alert for any hint of danger. His expression was a hard mask, the Jaffa letting his decades of combat experience take over for the time being. Right now they were telling him the same thing as the others; the four were not alone in this building. The only question was the location of their target. And as far as he could tell, the only way to find out was by searching this place top to bottom, risking an ambush or the quarry escaping.

He suddenly paused. Teal'c ceased his searching, ceased everything but breathing and blinking. His eyes flicked to the head of the staff, hanging completely still.

A thin line of red fluid was slowly running down the shell, not unlike a raindrop. He stared at the blood for a moment, his patience rewarded by a second drop a few centimeters from the first. Inhaling deeply, the Jaffa took a hand off the staff to reach inside his jacket, withdrawing the Zat.

Armed with a new weapon, he spoke once. "Above."

Whipping the staff up, Teal'c fired off a bolt of plasma at the falling target, narrowly missing the descending attacker. He tried jerking around to aim the Zat, but he misjudged the falling man's plan; a pair of feet landed on his shoulders hard enough to stagger him, one of his blades swiping down to slice the alien sidearm in half in a spark of electricity. A heartbeat later the attacker violently kicked off him in a lunge towards the others, sending him tumbling backwards. The staff left his frantically grasping hands, falling out of his reach.

Qrow met his strike in a wide slash, a clatter of protesting metal announcing his success. The knife wielding attacker cared not, and simply jumped at him again. The Huntsman beheld the snarling man's face, busy swiping the twin knives at him as fast as he could move. Qrow had to cede ground under the assault, for the moment doing little besides parrying the slashes.

Leaping out of the way, he nimbly dodged the swift jab Eliane attempted, rolling to his feet to bare his teeth. Crouching down to glare, he breathed deeply while he held the blades at his sides.

"You _found_ me." Tyrian heaved, showing no hint of amusement.

Between the two swordsman O'Neill carefully stepped into view to train the P90 on him. "Hey you, feel like giving up yet?"

He narrowed his eyes. "I think _not_."

Charging forward with the blades up, he was clearly targeting the Colonel first. O'Neill didn't hesitate, he squeezed the trigger to let loose a torrent of gunfire at the crazed bandit. In response Tyrian swerved to the side to disrupt his aim, chunks of concrete puffing up from every missed shot. But few were so easily dodged; flashes sparkled over his body, and with it came a couple distinct whistles of ricocheting bullets.

At the last second Tyrian stumbled, a fresh gout of blood spraying from his leg interrupting a lunge. A tiny circle of Aura circled the wound to close it up, but the damage was done.

Both Eliane and Qrow took the opportunity to stab at his jerking form, both swords coming uncomfortably close to nicking his skin. The blonde moved to the side for a forward thrust, allowing the dark haired man free rein to keep slashing at the target. His Aura was barely able to stop the hits that landed, and every strike weakened it further.

Without warning he ducked, avoiding a stab to drive up and tackle Qrow to the floor. Although both men were furiously wrestling, Tyrian managed to deliver a full forced punch at his opponents face, making him yelp. Using the chance, Tyrian brought up his knives to stab into his shoulders, the blades slowly sinking past the Aura and deep into the huntsman's flesh. Qrow gritted his teeth, barely able to stop himself from screaming. He could do nothing to stop the attacker from punching him out cold.

Springing from him to parry a wide slash from Eliane, Tyrian took off in a dead sprint, an all too brief stream of gunfire unable to stop him from reaching towards O'Neill, in spite of a fresh wound tearing into his arm. Eyes wide, the Colonel ducked too slow to prevent the hands from grabbing his head, forcing him down to the ground with a snarl. A snatching grip landed on the weapon, tearing it from the sling to be tossed away. Pinning him via his weight, Tyrian had zero obstacles in his way.

Faster than either man could react, a strong hand wrapped around the attacker's ponytail, rudely yanking him away from his victim. Gashing his teeth, Tyrian shot his hands to the grip on his hair, his snarling expression catching sight of Teal'c grimacing. He had time enough to blink, just before the Jaffa drove a fist into his forehead with a loud meaty smack. For a second the man had a dazed look to him, like he was unaware of what happened.

Drawing his fist back, Teal'c was ready to repeat the act as many times as necessary. But before he could continue, he suddenly grunted in unexpected pain, muscles freezing up at the worst time.

A hiss of breath escaped him as he looked to his torso, a single brow raised at the sight of a bulbous object ending in a sharp point sticking out of him. It tool several seconds to verify the chitinous limb wasn't extending from the ether, it was part of a segmented black tail leading to the back of the faunus. Without meaning to, he relaxed his now shaky grip.

Tyrian flopped his head to the side and licked his lips, yanking the scorpion tail out of the Jaffa. Freed from his target, he then swept it around to smack against his chest, the gasping man unable to stop himself from collapsing.

"Did you _think_ I'd go down that _easily_?" he quipped offhandedly, eyes swiveling back to his groaning victim.

"That's just cheap." O'Neill muttered ruefully. The next second the faunus slammed a fist on the torso beneath him, driving the air from the Colonel's lungs in one wheezing gasp.

But before he could finish the human off, Tyrian ducked his head down, the sword catching only a couple strands of loose hair. Bolting into the air, he flipped around with a formerly concealed pair of knives in hand, meeting the fresh slash with ease.

Eliane didn't let up, twirling her weapon around as she pushed ahead. He met the blow with a grunt, drowned out by the clash of steel landing against steel in a clattering spark. While she seemed to be aggressively striking at random, her irises were glowing the entire time, her features wrinkled from strain only. Catching the sword to force it down, Tyrian tried jerking his tail up to stab the woman.

At the last second her head moved to the side, the stinger all but ghosting over her skin. With the limb still driving forward, she quickly took a hand off the grip to go to her belt, snatching one of the items she kept there. Just as he yanked it back, she drove the small tool knife into the tail, puncturing the thin exoskeleton with a sharp crack.

He threw his head back to scream, loud enough to vibrate the air. Next Eliane threw her clenched fist at him, catching him in the throat to stagger him further. Gurgling as he staggered, she whipped the sword up to swing his arms up, both knives sent flying away. Her expression a hard grimace, she brought the sword back to her shoulder. She flung ahead with all the force she could muster, stabbing the sharp end at his lower torso, where she knew would disable him. His Aura was close to gone, so he had no more defense to halt the strike.

The point broke his skin, but just as it contacted he twisted his body to the side; instead of piercing deep, he let the sharp edge slide along as a drawn out slash instead. Sucking in a breath, she flicked her eyes to his face. His pained cry was quickly morphing into a demented grin. Idly aware of further movement, Eliane caught his arm being curled back, his fist wrapped around a small blood stained object. Her knife.

Eliane ducked to avoid the slash, leaving her open to a wound up punch. Though her Aura absorbed the damage easily, the power behind the strike forced her on the back foot, her sword narrowly clanking against the stolen knife's next stab. Tyrian kept up the pressure, darting from side to side as a whirlwind of lighting fast attacks, despite her best efforts to parry.

When Tyrian managed to direct the weapon to his legs, he launched the tail at her again, this time aiming at her center of mass. Throwing her weight back, Eliane barely succeeded in missing the blood splattered stinger, the bulb brushing over her shirt. The brief glimpse at his face made her involuntarily shiver. Righting herself, Eliane tried kicking herself away in order to put a distance between them. Most of her boot landed on the concrete, but the toes landed on something else entirely.

Something which slid out from under the woman, taking her foot with it.

Eyes growing wide, Eliane threw her arms out to rebalance herself, making a sharp gasp. She was unable to stop Tyrian from lunging at her, his grinning face pressing far too close to hers as he reached out to her. But the very same obstacle that made her slip up caught on his feet, ending his smile as he too tripped and fell with his target. She just realized it was the staff Teal'c wielded, inadvertently saving her life even as it ground across the floor.

Whatever joy she felt at the accident ended when Tyrian landed, impacting on her legs with a loud "Omph!" Realizing this, she launched a kick to dislodge him, which he caught in a struggling grip. She thrashed with all of her might, unable to make the giggling attacker let go.

In one second flat, he brought the stolen knife around to plunge into her inner thigh.

Eliane gasped, her stern countenance shattered when the pain registered. He dug the blade further in, forced past her Aura and into her flesh. Blood spouted from the injury in a small geyser, more draining out by the second. All of the woman's strength seemed to leach away, an ice cold feeling settling over her body. Her entire body recoiled when he yanked the knife out, lifeblood flowing out of her an an accelerated rate.

Tyrian glanced up from his handiwork to smirk at her, the gleam in his eyes shifting while he licked his lips. She tried to swing her sword at him, but the weakened blow did nothing but uselessly plop against his shoulder. He snatched the limb before it fell, tossing the weapon away as he pinned the arm to the ground. While she struggled for breath his grin increased, roaming his eyes over her body.

"Ellie!"

Whipping his head around, Tyrian's brief glare was quickly overtaken by a toothy grin. Rising from the struggling woman, he bared his teeth at the young man in the doorway, who stood frozen in shock. An unsettling laugh escaped him when launched towards the arrival.

On his end the young man charged in, drawing a sword from his belt to unfold a silver and black shield, raising both as he bellowed. A couple meters away Tyrian leaped to deliver a flying kick, but to his surprise the blow didn't send him flying; the young man's shoes squealed while he skidded across the concrete, but remarkably he stayed upright. He even had enough strength to force the shield out, unbalancing the faunus when he bounced off. Landing on his feet, Tyrian quickly charged again, easily veering out of the way to avoid the wide followup slash.

Once he was within arms reach, the boy was done; when he brought the shield up once more, Tyrian swung his tail around towards the exposed legs, hitting hard enough to sweep them out from under him. The young man's snarl was abruptly cut off, a squeak leaving his mouth before he hit the floor. In a blur the faunus caught his knives under the shield's edge, contemptuously throwing it aside. Finishing by stomping on his vulnerable limb, Tyrian idly swatted the sword out of his hand when he tried to retaliate.

Grinning at his snarling expression, the attacker let go of a single knife, freeing his hand to wrap around the young man's throat. Even as the blade clattered against the floor, Tyrian lowered himself to a squat, the tail reaching around to slither against the struggling boy's torso. His thrashing did nothing but make his assailant grin.

"You..." Jaune tried to taunt, gurgling when the grip on his throat tightened. He tried punching the arm clutching him for all he was worth, but to no avail.

"I've been _looking_ for you little sheep. Your guardians are _defeated_ , now we have all the time in the world to..." Tyrian used his free arm to cover his mouth, his barely restrained giggle sending a chill down Jaune's spine. " _ **Talk**_. We are going to have _so much_ _ **fun**_ -"

 _Fwip-wash_.

Tyrian staggered, his grin shattered when a small cloud of smoke puffed from his back. The man's quivering fingers let the remaining knife slip away, his jaw shakily dropping on its own. A shiver roiled over his body as he creaked his head to the side, appearing to have great difficulty in accomplishing something so trivial. Just as the acrid stench of burning meat reached Jaune's nose, Tyrian fell to the side, letting go of him when he collapsed.

A few meters away Teal'c heaved for breath, dropping the staff as he rolled to support himself. The Jaffa groaned loudly when he tried standing up, moving carefully to keep from falling. Hearing Jaune scramble to his feet, he glanced up to see him bolting over the short distance to the fallen woman. He staggered to his feet just as the blond fell to his knees, grabbing the woman's shaking arms.

"Ellie? Ellie!?" he babbled, jerking her body. His wide eyes were an exact match for hers, the blonde sputtering for breath.

" _Jaune_." Eliane croaked, raggedly coughing while she feebly squirmed.

"I'm here, I'm here, just hang on." Jaune pleaded, clutching her arms to keep her still. Unnoticed by either sibling, blood was creeping out from her in an ever growing puddle.

Groaning, O'Neill flopped up to peer at the fallen attacker. He sighed dejectedly, a heartbeat before his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

"Ah crap." he muttered, bolting to his feet with a groan. Wincing the entire time, he staggered to Tyrian's fallen form.

Qrow sat up too, gingerly touching the knives in his shoulders before wrapping a hand around the first. Taking a deep breath, he yanked the blade out as fast as possible, slapping his mouth to prevent a scream. Breathing deeply, he then noticed the Colonel darting to the attacker. He gave the remaining knife a look and sighed, standing up to jog over as well.

Dropping to his knees, O'Neill grabbed a fistful of Tyrian's jacket to jerk him up. "Don't die on me yet you son of a bitch!"

"Ah, ha..." the bandit opened his eyes, and found the strength to grin. "You..."

"Who are you working for! Tell me their names!" O'Neill barked, shaking his limp body. He ignored Qrow lowering to a crouch beside him, focusing everything on the man. The smell of burning meat was permeating the air, coming from his charred back.

Tyrian let out a gurgling chuckle. One of his arms rose, shaking as it curled around the back of the Colonel's neck. O'Neill resisted for a second, but he realized the man's quivering grip was resting on him, no more. Groaning unhappily, he let Tyrian drag his head down to his level. Gasping weakly, he lifted his head from the floor to put his mouth near the human's ear. Foul breath hit O'Neill, but he didn't pull away. Right by his ear, Tyrian exhaled a single word.

" _Salem_."

The grip loosened, falling away to drop to the ground. O'Neill stayed where he was for a moment, his expression hardening while he watched Tyrian go entirely limp, a smile on his face. Sighing lowly, he reached up to place two fingers on his eyelids, pulling them closed.

"What'd he say?" Qrow asked quietly, staring at him.

O'Neil huffed, pushing to his feet. "Couldn't tell."

Teal'c carefully lowered himself to a crouch, helpless to act. He watched Jaune paw at Eliane, begging her to stay awake, to hang on until help arrived, voice growing ever more shrill. One glance told him the wound was fatal.

Humans called it the femoral artery, the pathway to which blood flowed from the torso to the legs. Bray'tac taught him the weak point long ago, of how easy it was to make a man bleed out from a single deep cut on the inner thigh. His master cautioned him of its danger, emphasizing the dishonorableness of causing a painfully slow end like this. What little regret Teal'c felt for shooting Tyrian in the back evaporated; any foe who gleefully used such a method didn't deserve to die like a man.

"Ellie, _Ellie_." Jaune pleaded, clutching her hand in his own. He was almost hyperventilating, watching the woman's movements slow.

Eliane tried to lift her free hand, but she could barely move. Seeing this, Jaune snatched up the arm to hold against his chest, tears freely spilling.

"No, no." he murmured, gulping down a lump as he squeezed his eyes shut. "Please, don't."

Teal'c let out a breath. But when he blinked, the solemn look he sported fell away.

Unless the poison was affecting his vision, he was sure there was a faint glow around the young man's head. Before his eyes the hazy light spread out, swiftly enveloping the young man's body. For a moment his form was haloed by the strange glow, growing brighter by the second. Raising a brow, Teal'c observed the light spread from his hand to the woman, steadily oozing away to coat every centimeter of her body. Her stilling form seemed to absorb the light, though it did nothing to diminish the otherworldly glow covering the both of them.

Eliane gasped, jerking her body up to suck in breath. She panted, squirming like she was in great pain. At the same time, redness filled in her pale cheeks, new strength flowing into her body. While she thrashed Jaune was frozen like a statue, taking in one deep breath after another. Although the sight in front of him was incredible, Teal'c had to check on her wound. His suspicions were confirmed: the rent in her flesh was shrinking, sealing itself shut like a kara-kesh.

Dipping his brow, he chanced reaching out towards the glow himself. The light washed against his skin, hesitating before it too swam over the Jaffa. While it was definitely weaker than what the woman was receiving, the effects were more than enough. After a minute he felt along his side, discovering the stinger wound was gone. The lightheadedness from the poison disappeared with the injury.

Finally the glow receded from the trio, retracting in on the young man until he slumped. Blearily opening her eyes, Eliane blinked to focus on the face in front of her.

"Jaune?" she asked, voice weak.

Peering at her, an enormous smile came over the younger Arc when he quickly hugged the woman, squeezing for all he was worth. Pressing in on her neck, his breath came out in uneven rasps, tears spilled freely from his eyes. "Thank god you're okay."

Inhaling deeply, Eliane suddenly turned to him with a frown. "Which god?"

Jaune stiffened, his happiness vanishing in an instant. But before Eliane could follow up on the question, she spied the two men turning from the fallen bandit to approach the gathering

A tap on his shoulder made the blond look too, the blood draining from his features. Wincing when he stood up, Jaune gulped as he stood up straight to face the Colonel. Unnoticed by him Teal'c rose as well, holding out a hand to drag Eliane to her feet too. She reflexively winced, massaging the knitted flesh at the tear in her pants.

O'Neill stopped a meter away with Qrow beside him, doing nothing to disguise his glare. "Arc, what is the definition of insubordination?"

Shaking in place, he swallowed a lump. "Sir-"

"I don't want to hear any excuses." O'Neill interrupted, swiping a hand to make Jaune flinch. "Our target is dead. The entire point of this hike is on the floor over there, which was _not_ the plan. Now, I ordered you to stay in that room, twice. Twice I spelled out why you weren't coming with us. What part of that was unclear?"

Jaune's eyes were wide, the young man rooted in place. "Sir, I-"

"He saved my life."

O'Neill leaned to the side, narrowing his gaze. "Care to elaborate?"

"Tyrian stabbed me in the leg, I was bleeding out. Jaune distracted him so he didn't finish me, and his semblance healed my wounds." Eliane explained flatly, staring defiantly at him.

"Really." O'Neill replied dryly.

Qrow hesitated, but he forced himself to look at the ripped patch on her leg. "Yeah, that's a nasty cut right there. And he fixed that? How?"

"Some type of healing field he projected." Teal'c spoke up, twisting to show the tear in his own shirt. "It affected me as well. My injuries are gone."

Qrow rubbed his stubbled chin. "Hey, think you can do it again?"

Jaune gulped again, but he nodded. Taking a deep breath, Qrow reached to the remaining knife in his shoulder, squeezing his mouth shut. Grabbing ahold of the handle, he yanked the blade out with a wet rip, immediately clutching the leaking wound. Sucking in a breath, he shakily waved him on.

Closing his eyes to concentrate, Jaune placed a hand on Qrow's shoulder. For a moment nothing happened; O'Neill was about to call it off, but stopped himself when he spotted a faint glow coursing down the young man's arm. Silently watching the display, he saw the glow stream from one man to the other, trickling over Qrow's form until it reached the twin injuries. The huntsman winced, nearly tearing away from the hold. By force of will he stayed put, grimacing as the wound closed up.

When Jaune let go he stumbled, Eliane swiftly catching him before he fell. Meanwhile Qrow gingerly felt the injuries, dabbing at the smooth flesh for a second before grunting.

"Woah. This isn't just healing, its Aura transfer. I've heard about this kind of ability, but I've never seen it with my own eyes. One impressive semblance." he idly explained, flexing to test his status. "Hey Jack, you try."

Flopping his head over to affix a dry stare, O'Neill shrugged listlessly. Jaune left his sister's grip to approach him, softly panting when he reached out. The glow came faster this time, although the vibrancy was vastly weaker now. The Colonel kept his eyes shut until he was finished, doing nothing to help the young man from staggering backwards, short of breath and wore out.

Blinking, O'Neill lifted a leg to flex in the air. "T, you remember me saying my knee was acting up, even after I got surgery done?"

"Indeed." Teal'c rumbled, showing reserved interest.

"Well now my knee feels fine. Actually, I don't recall it feeling this well for a while now." he commented, resting his weight on the limb. "Say..."

"Don't think it'll work. Once you're dead, there's no Aura to refill." Qrow interrupted, eliciting a groan.

Huffing, O'Neill stabbed a single finger at Jaune. "Arc, I _really_ wanna punch you in the face right now. You listening to me?" he checked, receiving a weak nod. "Good, because this is it. This is the _one_ _and only_ time I'm gonna ignore insubordination from you. Do it again and you'll need a sarcophagus to walk again, clear?"

"Yes sir." Jaune replied weakly, chest heaving from strain. Eliane was giving him a strange look, which he could only shake his head at.

"Good, now let's get out of here. You said there's a bounty on this guy?" O'Neill jabbed a thumb towards the dead man. "You two can split the reward between yourselves, but I want a souvenir. Teal'c, want one too?"

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In room twenty eight of the main dorm, the four students residing here were at rest.

Sitting on the bed was a teen named Oscar; stripped of his breastplate, he was burdened instead by a steel sword in his lap. He was busy running an oil coated rag down the length of the blade, meticulously removing every blemish it accrued over the day. Although the teen was plainly tired, he diligently kept at his task. Doing this helped him ignore the goings on of his teammates.

While one was busy watching a movie on a small television, the two others were sitting cross legged on opposite sides of a small table, a checkerboard between them.

The tall one of the pair, wearing black up to his neck, moved one piece to take another off the board. "Well?"

"Phase six is a rousing success." replied his opponent, a short girl with green hair and a pair of ribbed horns, smiling to herself. "All three primary objectives are fulfilled, and five of the seven secondary conditions have been met. This is as close to perfection as we can get at this level."

Looking up from the board, Ron held a lone hand in the air. "So its true? Queen is in the city?"

"Arrived less than twenty minutes ago, she'll link up with the pawns shortly. More importantly, Knight is removed from the board." Bael leaned back, eyes unfocused. "Bishop and Rook are still on their way to Haven, but their ETA is several days away yet."

"Should I deal with them?" Ron asked, moving a checker.

Bael shook her head. "No. King suspects our hand, but I don't want to tip her off just yet. We'll file that under loose ends."

"Understood. Speaking of, what about Taurus? He's moved up his plan's timeline by several months." Ron spoke, pondering which piece to move next.

"How much?" Bael asked, taking a checker.

"At least six months." he replied, pausing when she gave him a raised brow. "The salvage operation was a lot more fruitful than we anticipated. The White Fang have a rather impressive stockpile of Atlesian small arms hidden away, but they've also got their hands on a quantity of explosives, Dust, and Paladins. They even managed to salvage one of the ships laser cannons. I'm not sure if it'll work or not, but they feel confident that it will."

She whistled. "Resourceful bunch."

"Unfortunately, this means Taurus is moving up his schedule. The White Fang have upwards of two hundred trained fighters hiding out in Mountain Glenn, and they're busy recruiting more. By my estimates, they'll have over two thousand green yet trained fighters within two months, and enough weapons to arm them all. Discounting an unknown but not negligible numbers of civilians who want in." he explained grimly, finishing by moving another checker.

"Which means they can take Vale if they strike fast enough." she concluded, frowning. "Not good. I'll assume you delayed them?"

Ron nodded. "Tipped off the nearest Atlas patrol to his headquarters. Taurus will be forced to either fight or flee, both outcomes will leave him out of our hair for now."

"Adams becoming more trouble than what he's worth. And he won't end his oh so wonderful working relationship with Queen, so we can't play divide and conquer." Bael sighed. "There goes my happy mood on that front. What of our subjects?"

"Noon is stable, Dawn and Dusk are uncertain but functional. Midnight is the best off right now, which I can't get over." he shook his head. "West however is showing some troubling behavioral cues. He defied El-two's command to go after Knight. No serious injuries." he hurriedly corrected with a wave.

"Hm, that's weird. Scholar and Exile I expected to break his orders, maybe Master. Think he'll fix his attitude?" Bael asked, briefly hovering over one piece before choosing another.

"Possible but unlikely. I'm mostly sure if we lose West, we can kiss South, North, and East goodbye." Ron told her, taking the piece she just moved.

Bael huffed. "We'll give it a bit more time, though we'll set up damage control measures. I'd rather not, but it looks we'll have to crack open the Tomb then."

His head shot up. "I thought you said we should leave that alone."

"We need to keep the Tau'ri here for a few more days, and this will insure that. I know how many problems that'll raise, but it needs to happen sooner or later." she said with an air of cynicism, slumping back to frown at her options.

"Could always use Plan Theta." went the remaining girl, flopping her horned head from her program.

Bael let out a breath, sullenly glancing over. "We've been over this already. Seeding Earth with the Grimm doesn't help out goals in any way, shape, or form. Remnant doesn't have the institutionalized knowledge or the infrastructure to take their place, not in the timeframe we're operating under."

"Remnant is more advanced." Ron pointed out, removing yet another piece.

"Superficially. But in the categories we require, they're sorely lacking. Without uplifting this world, we'd be trading a near perfect specimen for a vastly weaker one. For the last time, _no_." she declared, jabbing a finger at the slumping girl.

"Party pooper." she muttered unhappily.

Oscar set his sword aside, standing up to cough into a fist. Three pairs of eyes swiveled to him, making the boy shrink back nervously.

"I'm, um, heading out for a bit. Do any of you want anything while I'm gone?" he asked carefully, scratching his shoulder.

"We're good. Call me if you need anything, okay?" Bael checked, ignoring her teammate sniggering at her movie.

When she turned back to the board, Ron leaned back to gesture. "I win. How is it you're amazing at chess, but you suck at checkers?"

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 **A/N: There we go, part two.**

 **There are several parts of this chapter that are liable to make somebody reading this angry, but I'll go over the two I'm most worried about. Both concern Aura.**

 **First, energy weapons beating Aura. Yes that's how it is in this story, yes I know its a load of bull. But if I went and killed off SG-1, would you guys be happy? Because I'd have to do that if I played favorites to RWBY.**

 **The second, and far more complicated, is the P90's performance here. Now I know a few are you are going to gripe at me for this, but the truth is its one of the best options to use against Auras. Quoth wikipedia (for starters): "In testing in 1999 by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the SS190 fired from the P90 at a distance of 25 m (27 yd) exhibited an average penetration depth of 25 cm (9.85 in) in ballistic gelatin after passing through a Level II Kevlar vest."**

 **From The Shooters Club blog on the 5.7mm round: "Most bullets, including 5.7mm ammunition available to the public, have a lead core. Lead deforms significantly when it impacts a ballistic vest, spreading out the force of the impact and preventing the bullet from penetrating the multiple layers of fabric. SS190 ammunition, only available to police and military, has a steel penetrator that, when fired at the high velocity of the 5.7×28 cartridge, is capable of cutting through kevlar vests because it does not deform as lead does."**

 **And so on. When fired from a P90, the 5.7 round can defeat up to level III kevlar vests, and will beat level II relatively easily (provided both are within 50 meters).**

 **I encourage you to go do a little bit of research yourself, before jumping down my throat by shouting "AURAS IGNORE BULLETS YA HEATHENWAFFLE!"**

 **If you don't care at all, then disregard the above, and thank you for reading.**


	23. Aftermath

**A/N: Patsmckraken is the one hundredth person to favorite Not What You Expected. Hurray! Next shoutout is for the one hundred and fiftieth, so let's keep 'em coming.**

 **But seriously, thank you everyone who took the time to read this, I appreciate it.**

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 _"What do you mean you don't know where its located?"_

 _"That's it! She just gave us a couple pictures and asked me to send them to you. I don't even know what this thing is, I only bothered because we didn't have anything else to report at the time. Ask her if you want directions, I dunno where this things at."_

 _"Fine. Wait, what do you mean you couldn't get to them?"_

 _"Tried, haven't been able to get close enough. I'm not the only thinking this whole job was a waste of time, am I?"_

Massaging the black mass coating part of her arm, Cinder let out a small breath, bleakly wondering when things got to be this complicated. How all this began was so simple she could almost laugh; find a few lost kids, find out what they knew, and kill them. Nowhere was the death of her master's favorite pet on the cards.

By no means was Cinder broken up by Tyrian meeting his end, she would've done him in herself if she thought she could get away with it. But that didn't change the fact he was one of the inner circle, so his death couldn't go unanswered. Salem wouldn't accept any other outcome. And as luck would have it, another powerful member of said circle just entered Vale for unrelated business, so redirecting her was as simple as sending a brief message. It was as straightforward as things got.

So it came as a total shock when Salem's communique arrived via the tiny Seer Grimm on her arm, further nursing the uncomfortable pit in her stomach. Finding some old statue and avenging Tyrian were equally important? She had a bad feeling about the ring when she first saw the picture, and her master's strange fixation on it was only making it worse. The woman wasn't entirely sure she wanted to find out what this bizarre construct was, or why it was so important.

Abruptly realizing she lost track of the current conversation, Cinder refocused to appear involved.

"-approximately eighteen hundred local recruits so far. More would be nice of course, but we only have so many supplies." droned a heavyset faunus clad in the uniform of the White Fang sans mask, pacing over the decrepit office while an operative of his sat on a repurposed desk.

Arms crossed, Cinder glanced out the dirty window towards the underground stadium, built during Mountain Glenn's heyday and never finished. Not so long ago it was a dark expanse inhabited by wild animals and the occasional Grimm, the stadium abandoned when the city was evacuated. She imagined a poet could look at this place and write a tale about the folly of men, something along the lines of battling the inevitable. The same could be said for much of the city she supposed.

But that all changed. Right now, the stadium was positively bustling with activity, everything illuminated by giant searchlights planted all over to banish the darkness. When they moved in the White Fang cleared away the larger debris, sealed as many holes as they could find, and proceeded to transform a sporting field into a heavily armed camp.

Cinder could see many faunus from the old vantage point, making out several groups busy on various tasks. Some were practicing marksmanship on a makeshift firing rage, the cracks of gunfire from the scavenged Atlesian weapons reaching their location. Others were pouring over several Bullheads and Paladins, either repairing or refitting the vehicles. Still others were engrossed by what was clearly physical training, from running to weight lifting to hand-to-hand combat, in order to whip the former civilians into shape.

"Impressive isn't it?" asked the self proclaimed General, one Burgundy Hale if she remembered correctly, stopping to smirk at her. "Taurus gave me five months to turn this motley crowd into an army, and at their current progress they'll be combat ready in under four. By the time our deadlines up, this will be the best trained and best equipped unit the White Fang have." he explained pridefully.

"Won't mean much to an Atlas battlegroup." she idly replied, glancing out the window again.

"We're banking on that. You see, our engineers managed to recover one of their own laser cannons from a wreck, it's being worked on at another site. The crew tells me its perfectly functional, the only problem is supplying enough power. But that's being sorted out as we speak. Ironic that the weapons Atlas built to smite their foes will be used to bring about their downfall." he gloated, peering out to the training field himself.

When she glanced at him again, Hale's smile dipped. "Of course, our overall supply situation could be better. Scavenging the wreckage from the original battle helped, as did many of the recruits bringing their own weapons, but it's still a lot more stilted than I'm comfortable with. I've requested more munitions and spare parts, but for now this is going to be the best I'll get."

Cinder let out a breath through her nose, lowering her hands to first look at the the mute two toned girl, who smiled back. Keeping a cold visage on her for a second, she glanced back to Hale. "So you guys are serious about razing Vale."

"Not razing, conquering." he corrected with a wagging finger, his two curved horns twirling too. "We don't just want to bleed the kingdom, we're planning on taking it over. After that, we'll repurpose Vale's resources and industry to our own ends. The humans will toil for the faunus, just like they always did to us."

"You'll do this with just two thousand fighters." she said dryly.

Hale's brow twitched, a faint scowl on his features. But no insults followed the dirty look. Not for the first time Cinder was glad she left the others behind; Emerald would've gotten snotty over his disrespect, although Mercury would keep his mouth shut when she told him to do so. Their lack of progress over the past week wasn't endearing them to her either, the duo wasting time avoiding the police instead of doing what they were told. Not for a moment did she accept the excuse of the cops being more active than usual.

"There are two other factions being assembled, around a thousand fighters apiece. In six months all our groups will muster on the borders and attack. We'll sweep their defenses aside and take the city, any faunus that wants to join us will be welcome. Beacon will be the first to go." he ended with a smirk, enjoying the momentary scowl on her features.

Cinder contemplated putting a fireball through him, but she reluctantly vetoed the idea. For now, she still needed him and his group of wannabe revolutionaries.

"That's all well and good. But in the meantime, about my... request." she got out, tasting bile in the back of her throat.

Hale smirked once more. "The additional intel your group provided was very useful, it nicely complimented our own informant's findings. In exchange, I'll be happy to loan you a Bullhead and a dozen guards."

"Good, get one prepped immediately. I want this done and over with..." she trailed off when he shook his head.

"Your little diversion isn't happening today. An Atlas warship is doing a sweep over this region, and I'm not compromising this entire operation just for your little job. When its past, then I'll oblige you, not a moment sooner." he explained cooly.

Cinder gritted her teeth. "I need that taken care of as soon as possible."

"I just told you the score." Hale glanced at the girl on his desk, for a moment flashing the same expression as her a moment ago. "Listen, I don't like you any more than you like me. If I could I'd get you out of my hair right away, I would, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But I can't, not without putting my whole operation in jeopardy. Either wait a day or two, or find someone else to cart you around."

Sucking in a breath, Cinder clenched then relaxed her fists. She wanted nothing to do with this arrogant faunus, but she knew he was right. Glancing at Neo once again, her scowl was met by a playful grin, the girl staring intently at her the entire time.

...

00000

...

"Okay, yes, it was a mistake." Daniel conceded, pacing in front of the headmaster's desk.

O'Neill sighed, standing at attention a few paces away with his hands in his pockets, watching his friend defend him. He was doing exactly what the bespectacled man insisted he do an hour ago, which was stand aside and let him do the talking. The Colonel didn't disagree.

Peeking to the side, he noted Qrow watching the display with a dry expression, doing little to hide what he thought of the meeting so far. O'Neill wanted to tell the huntsman things would be okay, but instead he kept silent, for fear of invoking more wrath than he already had. The only thing he made sure of before Ozpin summoned them was sending Eliane off to a hospital, in spite of her insistence that she was alright.

"But he had a good-" Daniel's spirited defense ended when Ozpin raised a hand, silencing the casually uniformed man.

"Doctor Jackson, I can appreciate you defending your comrade, even though you have plenty of grievances with his actions yourself." Ozpin's voice was calm, but the coldness in his tone was unmistakable. "However, this doesn't change the facts of what happened. Colonel O'Neill, what do you have to say to defend yourself?"

"Nothing Doctor Jackson hasn't already said." O'Neill replied, deciding to keep the snark down for once.

Ozpin slowly nodded, resting his elbows on the desk so he could tent his fingers. "Doctor, Mister Brawen, please wait outside."

Daniel opened his mouth, evidently planning on arguing long after his cause was lost. But when O'Neill cleared his throat to catch his attention, the man grimaced at the man's backwards nod. Dejectedly walking towards the exit, he slowed when passing by him.

"You did the best you could." O'Neill offered softly. Daniel huffed and stomped away.

Qrow appeared leery, coughing into a fist. "Well Oz, I'm at fault too. I should've called the cops."

"That you could have done Qrow. Now step outside." Ozpin spoke simply, devoid of any trace of goodwill.

The huntsman winced, sighing as he turned around. Offering one last look towards O'Neill, he nodded at the shrug the Earther gave him, before walking off as well. The Colonel watched him leave for a moment, though he didn't move from his spot. Nor did he look over his shoulder, hearing the door open then clamp shut. The entrance sealed with a smooth hiss, reminding him of a bank vault. Or a prison cell.

Facing the desk once more, O'Neill slid his hands into his pockets. "The behind closed door rant. A classic."

"That's correct O'Neill." Ozpin replied, lowering his hands just far enough to settle his cold gaze upon him. "You're evidently used to it."

"It happens. Usually means the one on the delivery end is angry." he shrugged to loosen up.

"No. I am not just angry." Ozpin replied. He reached up to take his glasses off for a moment, closing his eyes and rubbing the sockets. But when his expression returned to the Colonel, the look was powerful enough to leave even him taken aback. "I am _furious_."

Stunned at the massive shift, O'Neill could only observe the headmaster using the cane to rise to his feet, all but seething.

"Do you realize what you've done? A man is _dead_ because of your actions. I don't care how dangerous he was." he interrupted O'Neill before he could reply. "He should have faced a proper court of justice, not a summary execution by a man who believes his own judgment is superior to the law, of a foreign land no less. You put yourself, your subordinate, and mine at risk, giving no thought to the consequences because you're so used to getting your own way. Why should I trust your world if they're willing to give such authority to someone as foolish as you?"

"Now wait a second." he tried to protest, only for a swiped hand to stop him.

"This is not your world, you cannot do whatever you please when it suits you. If this is the behavior I can expect from Earth, then this interplanetary deal should be terminated now." Ozpin snapped, causing the man to do a double take. "Before I tie my world to a band of lunatics, who will happily ignore any rules in existence when it suits them. Your position is much weaker than you assume it to be, so do not presume you can force myself or anyone else to cooperate."

Lowering his hand, Ozpin was breathing heavily as he glared daggers at his silent guest, who had put on a neutral visage instead of arguing.

"This is the one chance I'm giving you _Colonel_." he all but spat the rank. "If you attempt anything like this again, I will sever all relations with your world, _permanently_. Come here after that and I'll have you thrown in prison for the rest of your life. Now." his expression flickered as he lowered himself to the chair again, but he couldn't tell if it was from pain or fury. "Get out of my office."

Activating the display on his desk, Ozpin immersed himself in the day to day affairs of running Beacon. The glowing surface was replete with documents, reports, requests, and messages of every variety, all of it vying for his attention. It was a workload that would leave a lesser man in tears, but he went to work without a second thought. His assistant could only do so much after all. Occupied as he was however, he was far from deaf.

"I told you to leave." he commanded, focusing on the work while he reached for his coffee.

"Salem."

The hand froze in place. The headmaster ceased all movement, his breath catching in an undignified hiccup. Unseen by anyone, his normally sharp mind came to a screeching halt in an instant. Slowly lifting his head, Ozpin's hollow gaze fell on the visitor.

"Last night, right after Teal'c shot him, I tried wringing as much information out of that nutcase as I could. That word was the only thing Tyrian told me before he died." O'Neill explained, his face a blank mask. "To tell the truth, I went after that guy myself because my gut told me there was more to him than what met the eye. Over the course of my whole Air Force career, my gut has never once been wrong. You just showed me it wasn't this time."

Walking up to the desk to plant his hands on the surface, he leaned over to narrow his eyes.

"That guy knew something, and you're afraid of it. You wouldn't be nearly this angry if we hauled him back in chains, that I'm sure of." he said lowly, no trace of amusement on his features. "I'm willing to bet there's a nice dark hole set up you could toss him into, and after that it'd be the last anyone ever heard from poor Tyrian Callows."

"You don't want to get involved in this." Ozpin replied in the same way, hardening his own expression.

"You're right. Fact is, I don't give a damn about your problems. I'm here to do a job, that's all." he stood up, crossing his arms. "Part of that job involves me making sure I'm not putting my planet at risk, so I have to make sure there isn't a worm in this apple. So, all I wanna know from you is one thing. Is your baggage going to be a problem for me?"

Ozpin narrowed his bespectacled eyes. "I was hoping this deal between our worlds would help get rid of my baggage, within two years if it goes as I hoped. In no way will it impact you."

"Works for me." O'Neill agreed lowly, backing up to stuff his hands in his pockets.

"The current draft of the trade negotiation will be presented to the Council later today. Within a day or two it'll be ratified, and then your work here will be done." the headmaster explained coolly.

"Fantastic." he replied with no trace of enthusiasm. "If you had asked nicely before this, I just might've helped you take this Salem person down."

Without warning the door whooshed open, admitting a lone interloper jogging to the pair. As Ozpin picked up, O'Neill turned around to raise a brow.

"Doctor Jackson, I asked you to wait outside." the headmaster said, his tone cold yet warily curious.

"Just got radioed by Sam, something's come up." Daniel got out quickly, stopping by the desk to glance between them.

Noticing his agitation, O'Neill quietly huffed. "Let me guess, snakes."

"Sort of. Headmaster Ozpin, we need you to come up with us." Daniel spoke rapidly, worry flashing over him.

"Very well." he muttered. Rising with a groan, the old man tapped an icon on his desk. "Glynda, there's a special event going on, I'll be unavailable for the next hour." he said with strain, which was muted when he was up and supported by the cane. "Let's go."

There was a flash of light, and then all three men were gone.

...

00000

...

Pyrrha swung Akoúo around to slide onto her back, facing away from her friends with a heavy heart. Sighing for the umpteenth time since the previous night, the redhead slowly walked to the foot of the bed, snagging Miló resting on the frame to join her shield. Adjusting the weapon to a more comfortable spot, she took one more breath and turned around.

Jaune was on his knees in front of the second bed, a P90 and its cleaning kit set out before him, placed on a mat so he could tend to the weapon. He was dressed and armored, missing only Crocea Mors, which was resting in the corner. Ren and Nora were already prepared for the day, the orange haired girl finishing up by placing Magnhild on her back like Pyrrha did. The sable haired young man had his scroll out, seemingly absorbed with checking on the device, instead of leaving like he said he would.

Finally Jaune dropped his tools, rising to his feet before grudgingly turning around. A sour look was on his face, one she couldn't help wincing at.

"Just get it over with." he muttered, rolling his shoulders.

Nora huffed and faced him, planting her fists on her hips. "Why'd you do it?"

"Because I had to." Jaune retorted, brow wrinkled while he crossed his arms.

"No you didn't." Ren said softly, closing the device to absentmindedly rub his shoulder. "You disobeyed orders because you wanted to show off to O'Neill."

"Not this again." Jaune milled about, rubbing the bridge of his nose and grimacing. "We had a chance to actually help for once, to do _something_."

"Besides die?" Nora countered, setting her features into a hard line. "I'm all for doing risky stuff, if there's a good reason. Impressing O'Neill, especially when he said _not_ to follow him, isn't one." she declared, stabbing a finger at him.

"We didn't stand a chance against Tyrian. Doing what we were told was the best thing we could've done." Ren said, crossing his own arms.

"How do you know?" the blond snapped, stomping on the floor. He flung his head over, his anger morphing into a pleading look. "Pyrrha, please. Back me up."

Sighing, the redhead swallowed a lump. "I... I don't think you should've left. I understand what you wanted, but this wasn't the time or the place."

Her diplomatic reply failed; Jaune sucked in a breath, grabbing his face to rub the flesh underneath. She could almost hear his teeth grinding together, making her wince.

"Jaune." Ren stepped closer, hand outstretched.

"It wasn't like that." his hands fell, his chest slumping with them. "I didn't care about impressing O'Neill, alright? I, I..." dropping his head, he sighed. "We could've helped. We could've..."

"There's no guarantee your sister wouldn't have gotten hurt." Ren offered soothingly, still holding out his splayed palm as he approached, his free hand gesturing at his side.

"Okay, say we did disobey orders to follow along." Nora began dubiously, carefully stepping back. "Maybe your sis didn't get stabbed and nearly bled to death. Instead she could've gotten her throat cut, so that'd be the end of her right there. Or I could've gotten stabbed, or Ren, or Pyrrha, or you. Then what?"

Jaune hissed through his teeth, affixing a sour look at his advancing friend. "Maybe. Or we could've overwhelmed Tyrian with our superior numbers, and taken him alive, of got the chance to Zat him. Or, _something_." he threw his hands in the air, turning away to avoid looking at the interloper. "Could you stop that?"

"If you promise to calm down on your own." Ren answered flatly.

Pyrrha let out a breath to take a step towards them, only to immediately pull back to her previous spot. The numbness on her senses faded as fast as it arrived, though far from completely. Nora had likewise retreated to the far wall, standing akimbo while she kept her look. She was keeping a safe distance from the deadening field, plainly intending on avoiding its effects as much as possible.

"I can feel my soul leeching out of me." Jaune protested bitterly.

"That's called being melodramatic. Now." he placed a hand on his friends shoulder, for the moment not quite able to muster the right feeling. Emotion damping was a double edged sword. "Let it go. We'll have our chance, okay?"

By the door Pyrrha cleared her throat. "I'm heading out for a while. I'll be on Beacon grounds, so just call me if something happens, okay?"

"Yeah, stay safe." Nora gave a lackluster wave, sighing at the circumstances. The boys did so as well, though Jaune's hurt look made her wince apologetically.

The last thing she heard before exiting was Ren's soft voice, still trying to console his teammate. "How about we go spar for a bit? Work out the frustration?"

Closing the door behind her, the redhead sighed dejectedly to let her head rest on the wood. She knew this would happen, knew this was coming ever since Jaune returned last night to explain what happened. The only thing giving her any solace was his lack of punishment for insubordination, her relief overshadowing her amazement at him finally discovering how to manipulate his semblance. It could have been worse by far.

Pushing away from the door, Pyrrha took off at a sedate walk towards the exit, heading in the direction of the main dorms. Her stride was even, but her mind was a tumultuous mess of conflicting emotions. In an attempt to soothe her thoughts, the redhead idly wondered how her commander would take the news of what happened last night, the mental diversion finally breaking her grim expression.

" _I like his heart but not his head. How's about a handshake and a boot up the ass, that should do the trick._ " went the informal voice of SG-10's leader, Captain Carolina. She was a stern woman with no stomach for any kind of formalities, who didn't care about the redhead being an alien to them. All she minded was the so called 'stuck up' attitude she claimed Pyrrha kept, though she never actually explained what that meant.

Covering her mouth, the redhead shook her head as she smiled wryly at her latest mentor. She could easily picture Carolina managing this mess in her usual direct approach, a method of sheer crassness that left Pyrrha speechless in the early days. Glancing to the ceiling, she idly wondered how she and SG-10 were doing; were they moving on without a problem, or could they be talking about her right now?

Shaking her head, Pyrrha moved from the guest block into the main dorms, her good mood fading the further she walked. She was grateful for the momentary reprieve, but now she had to put that aside for the time being. Focusing on the matter at hand was her only concern, or so she told herself.

Counting the doors while she strode in, she frowned at a blocked off wing that rang with the sounds of workers, giving it a strange look for a moment. Pyrrha needed a moment to realize she stopped, but not at any random door.

"Right." she murmured to herself, backing away. The currently empty dorm room in front of her didn't belong to her team anymore, it hadn't for quite some time, and likely never would again. Sighing to herself, she pressed on.

A short distance away and Pyrrha halted again, this time meaning to do so. She paused before the plain door, unremarkable except for a small plaque above the frame, one which marked this room as number twenty eight. Curling her hand into a fist, she raised her hand to knock, pushing the hesitation to the corner of her mind.

But before she could do anything, the door swung open on its own. Jerking back in surprise, she almost drew a weapon, but forced herself to stop and take a deep breath. After noticing she took her hand away from the javelin, fingers ghosting over the grip.

"Can I help you?" asked a calm male voice, one that reminded her of Ren.

Lowering her hand, Pyrrha straightened up before the student in black, unwittingly trailing her eyes up for his face. The boy was about half a head taller than she was, making her feel short despite her own aggressive growth spurt, and his calm features shown with measured curiosity. He only opened the door halfway, keeping a gloved palm resting on the edge.

"Hi, is this team BROM's room?" she checked, trying to force some casualness into her stance.

"That's right. My names Ron Mavros." he offered, tapping on his chest. "Is there a problem?"

"Sort of. My names Pyrrha Nikos." she greeted, clearing her throat. "Is Masculum Aries in there?"

Ron went still, unmoving save for his breathing. For a moment she feared she made a mistake, but then he unexpectedly sighed, dropping his head to shake. His dreadlocks rustled with the movement, flopping back as he lifted his head. This time there was a sour look on his face.

"What'd she do to you?" he questioned laconically, sounding exhausted all of a sudden.

Pyrrha took a deep breath. "She told me... told me a friend of mine did something."

"Ruby Rose, its that the issue?" Ron asked, making her blink. "Yeah, thought so. Come on in." he shoved the door aside, gesturing into the room before heading in. Although she was reluctant about following him, Pyrrha carefully walked after the boy anyway, readying herself for a fight just in case.

The room was an otherwise typical dorm, just with the addition of a small television and a mini fridge in the corner. Nothing about it stood out to her, except for its occupants. On one bed a dark toned boy looked up from a sword on his lap, stiffening up at the mere sight of her. When she offered a short wave in acknowledgment, he looked away nervously.

But on the bed besides his, the white haired girl with horns set her scroll aside to flop up, suddenly grinning. "You came."

"Yeah." Pyrrha replied guardedly, resisting the instincts telling her to draw a weapon.

Masculum rolled to her feet, for some reason still clad in the thick white and red outfit from the night before. She took a second to straighten her jacket out before beaming at the arrival.

"So, you really do wanna find out the truth." she said, smiling broadly. Meanwhile Ron stepped around, his expression hardening at the girl.

Catching movement Pyrrha glanced over, beholding a fourth occupant she initially overlooked. Leaving a bed to join the gathering was a small girl, appearing mature yet short. Clad in a black jumpsuit, her green hair rustled around a pair of ribbed horns rising up from her scalp, the redhead noting the black and glossy protrusions. For a second she wondered what kind of faunus the girl was, putting the question aside when she spoke.

"Let me guess." she began drolly; for as small as she was, her voice was surprisingly full. "You're Nikos."

"That's right." Pyrrha nodded, frowning at the stranger.

"I'm Bael. And I'm gonna assume you're here because Masculum told you to come?" she went on, sparing a look at the other girl in the room.

"Yep!" Masculum proclaimed, standing akimbo and beaming.

"Yeah." Pyrrha reluctantly agreed, glancing between them. A questioning look at Ron was met by a shrug.

Bael sighed. "Okay then. All of you out."

In the blink of an eye Masculum shoved between Pyrrha and Ron, barging right up to the smaller girl to snarl with indignation. " _Wha?!_ No, I was gonna do it!"

"Out." she repeated simply, pointing at the door.

Ron turned to the boy, arms crossed and features neutral. "Go on Oscar, I'll join you in a little while. Tell Raoul I'll help with his physics work later if you don't mind."

"Y-yeah." he agreed with a rapid nod, picking up the broadsword to place on his back. The last thing the boy did was snag a small black greave, sliding it over his left hand as he half jogged to the door, sparing a quick peek back before vanishing.

Finally Masculum threw her hands in the air, whipping around to stomp away from the small leader, giving the redhead a sour glance before she too vanished from sight. Finally Ron walked past her, bringing up two fingers to mime tipping a hat on his way to the exit. He grabbed the door to lock it shut behind him, leaving the two girls alone in the room.

As the horned girl sighed, Pyrrha raised a brow. "That was..."

"I don't trust Masculum to handle this right, not at all." Bael replied, crossing the room for the mini fridge. After rooting around, she held up a small can over her shoulder. "I got three kinds of soda pop and water. Can I offer you anything?"

"I'll take some water." Pyrrha answered; she didn't want one, but she felt playing along was a good choice.

Tossing a clear bottle at her to catch, Bael gestured at the far bed, heading back to her own with a can in her grip. Giving a leer to the messy sheets, the redhead elected to shake her head in a polite refusal. On her part Bael flopped down on the bed in front of her, popping the tab to take a long drag of the soda. Lowering the can, she was silent for a moment, regarding the guest in her room.

"Just to make sure, what did Masculum say to you, and when?" she spoke, features neutral.

Pyrrha cleared her throat, trying to avoid staring at the girl's vibrant eyes. "Last night, in the guest dorms. My teammate and I had... a disagreement, and after he left she showed up. We talked for a minute, then she mentioned something about a friend of mine, Ruby Rose."

"Go on." she invited.

"Masculum mentioned Ruby did something during the Vytal Festival, but she wouldn't tell me what. All she said was to come here, and, well..." the redhead waved a lackluster hand around, holding the water bottle in her grip.

"That. Of course, had to be that." Bael closed her eyes to shake her head. "I told her to give it a rest, but of course she didn't listen to me." she sighed, opening her eyes again to regard the visitor. "She's my friend, I love her to death, but she _really_ gets on my nerves sometimes." she finished, clenching a fist.

"So?" Pyrrha gently prompted, giving her water a considering look.

Bael leaned back, expression blank. "What did Ruby tell you about the festival?"

"Only that the Battle of Beacon interrupted it. I know she competed." she answered, frowning.

"Yeah, figured. That's her prerogative, can't imagine anyone who wouldn't say the same thing in her place. So." she settled her unsettling green eyes on Pyrrha, causing an involuntary shiver to crawl down her spine. "This is the only chance you'll have to turn back. You can walk out that door without hearing what I have to say, to no consequence. If Ruby herself wishes to tell you the story, she will. Or you can stay, and find out behind her back."

Pyrrha blinked in surprise, raising a brow after a moment. "I don't understand."

"What I have to share with you is important. It also violates the trust between your friend and yourself. Both Ruby and her team had their reasons to keep this a secret from you, I imagine they'll break the news to you on their own time. Unless you choose to stay." she raised a hand towards the door, her intent obvious. "Are you certain you want me to tell you?"

The redhead gulped, but she did nod. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Alright." Bael set her soda beside the bed, letting out a breath as she looked up. "The finalist duel was the event that began the panic, which led to the Battle itself. It happened because Ruby Rose murdered her opponent."

...

00000

...

A flash of light announced Ironwood's arrival, the General sucking in a breath of processed air before letting it out as a quiet sigh. A brief test of his arm confirmed the obvious: it didn't respond to him whatsoever, just as he knew it would. Huffing to himself, he turned from the window view to the man waiting for him.

"Colonel Pendergast." Ironwood acknowledged respectfully.

"General Ironwood, welcome. Thanks for coming on short notice." the master of the _Prometheus_ replied, showing a level of strain far above what he saw the last time he saw him.

"Did something happen Colonel?" he asked immediately, frowning in worry.

"Not the worst case scenario, but its bad enough. Over here." the greying officer turned to stride, either forgetting his guest's problem or too occupied to care this time.

Frown deepening, Ironwood trudged across the bridge to the operations center, nodding to the crewmen in his path. He joined the gathering around the raised table showing a low quality digital picture, taking note of the men and woman apparently waiting on him.

"Gentlemen." he nodded to them, his gaze falling on Ozpin.

"General, thanks for coming." the bespectacled man greeted, his expression grim.

Pendergast stood up straight, gathering the collective attention of the group. Around the table were SG-1, Ozpin, Ironwood, and a man in a different style uniform to the others. The General needed a few seconds to recall his name from the tour several days ago, Reynolds if he remembered correctly. Everyone present sported an uneasy look.

"Alright, now that we're all here." Pendergast began, glancing to the General first. "Hope you weren't busy sir."

"Just a staff meeting for the 33rd. What's going on?" he inquired guardedly.

"I invited you General, I felt your consul was needed here." Ozpin replied, turning to the lone blonde among them.

Carter stood forward, clearing her throat. "Sirs."

"Go ahead." O'Neill invited from beside her, arms crossed and with a tight expression.

"Approximately thirty minutes ago the _Prometheus_ detected a blanket subspace transmission, emanating from here." she fiddled with the controls, allowing for a large picture to be displayed on the table. Once it loaded, Ironwood needed seconds to realize what it was.

"The moon?" he asked in surprise, glancing up.

"That is correct." Teal'c supplied, his stoicism failing to entirely mask his concern.

"We did a thorough scan when we arrived in this system. The only signals were radio, and they were coming from Remnant." Pendergast spoke. "There wasn't subspace comms of any variety, until now."

"When I traced the signal, we found this." Carter did something to make the grey pockmarked surface strip away, revealing numerous red circles and lines underneath. There was a pattern to the array, but not one he saw. "The shielding here is impressive, it took almost fifteen minutes to even detect this place. Sensors are still mapping it out as we speak. If the ship still had its previous setup, I don't think we could've found this facility at all. Even now it's difficult."

"Someone went to a lot of trouble to hide this place." Daniel added, arms crossed as he stared.

"Indeed." Teal'c mumbled.

"Why though?" went Reynolds, leaning over the table. "Underground facilities are nothing new, but why go through the trouble and expense of building one on an airless moon, when there's a perfectly habitable planet right there?" the Marine finished by gesturing out the window.

"The Grimm are likely the reason. This place would be infinitely safer than any location on Remnant." Ozpin offered, fixated on the screen.

Ironwood cleared his throat. "What even is this place?"

O'Neill crossed his arms, briefly looking at the others. "Want me to say it?" he asked, receiving no objection. Satisfied, he met the General's expression with his own. "This is a Goa'uld base. It's been floating over your heads this entire time."


	24. Answers

**A/N: So yeah, I thought to myself, "Hey, let's do shorter chapters, since the longer ones feel bloated and laggy." And then, I... wrote almost eleven thousand words. Because... um...**

 **Many thanks to KisaragiKei. Reader, go check out his profile and read his stories, you'll love 'em.**

 **Oh, and I don't own RWBY, Stargate, or anything else you spot. Proper owners or GTFO.**

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"This is a Goa'uld base. Its been floating above your heads this entire time." O'Neill said bluntly, unsmiling.

The General took a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut to try to change the facts, but his efforts were fruitless. Everything remained the same, there was no changing the situation. When he opened them again, he narrowed his gaze at the Earthborn Colonel.

"How did this base get here?" Ironwood questioned, a sliver of undisguised suspicion in his tone. "And why did you just now find it?"

"Its fairly simple sir. For starters, we weren't looking for this facility." Carter said, standing firm under his gaze.

"Yeah, Goa'uld tend to leave artifacts and temples scattered all over worlds they control, but as a rule they're only concerned with the planet itself. Easier access to a Stargate after all." Daniel defended, tapping on the table for emphasis.

"I recall you mentioning your ship has an advanced sensor network. Why did it not pick up on this base when you arrived?" the General continued, likewise pointing at the display via his left hand. Despite his upset attitude he refrained from leaning over, the limp arm hanging by his side in a vaguely dignified manner.

"As Major Cater just said General, the amount of shielding here is quite impressive. Our upgraded sensors are better than a Goa'uld mothership's, yet its still having trouble getting readings. And since the facility wasn't broadcasting or receiving any transmissions, we never had a reason to look." Pendergast explained, arms crossed behind his back while he examined the incoming data.

"That appears to be the intention. Only a System Lord has the resources to construct a base such as this, and have the reason to hide it." Teal'c added his own insights.

"I'm curious." Ozpin spoke up, gathering the group's attention. "How exactly could a Goa'uld build something like this? I admit your understanding of space far exceeds ours, but our scholars determined the moon was airless centuries ago. Life is impossible there."

"It's not difficult as it seems actually." Carter leaned over to play with the controls, highlighting different parts of the burgeoning map. "Goa'uld shield technology is sufficiently powerful enough to hold in atmosphere, and they have the means to project a barrier over a wide area. This wouldn't be enough to protect against orbital bombardment for more than a few minutes, but it can work well enough to start a construction project. Creating a large artificial gravity field would be even easier, particularly if they decreased the strength to help with excavation speed."

"And the labor?" the headmaster inquired, raising a brow.

"Slaves. Lots and lots of slaves." O'Neill said simply, crossing his arms. The two exchanged a glance lasting only a second, yet the air seemed to chill several degrees. "Odds say the workforce weere disposed of once the place was finished. Don't wanna leak the location of a secret base, do you?"

"Ruthless and pragmatic. That narrows down the suspect list." Daniel idly said, peering out the bridge window for a moment.

"They were thorough too." Carter added, leaning in closer to the display. "The majority of the base is deep under the moon's surface, except for this area here." she pointed at a highlighted section of the display, numbers popping in beside it. "This appears to be the shallowest part of the facility, I think there might be a hangar or a ring platform down there. It should be permeable by beaming, unless we locate a set of working rings."

Ironwood and Pendergast raised their heads to her, the former raising a brow. "You're going down there?"

"Yes sir." she promptly replied, glancing up. "The subspace transmission is fairly weak, I doubt its covered more than a few lightyears by now. But it hasn't stopped broadcasting since we first received it almost forty minutes ago, so that signal is still going." Carter flashed a grim expression.

"And will do so until a hostile ship detects it." Teal'c finished for her.

"Exactly. We have to head into the base, even if all we do is shut the transmitter down. Before the Goa'uld find Remnant." she explained with a determined tone.

"Here's a question though." Daniel interjected, sweeping his head around. "Who turned it on in the first place?"

Carter grimaced. "I'm not sure. It could be an automated system, only triggering when a ship has been loitering in orbit for too long."

"But you don't know." Ironwood countered, frowning unhappily.

"No sir, I don't. There's no way to tell from up here." she replied, giving the image an uncertain look.

Pendergast nodded. "Understood Major. Colonel." he glanced to the older man. "I want you to lead the mission to shut this transmitter down. Take backup."

"Planned on it sir. Looks like you and your boys will do something after all." O'Neill flopped his head to Reynolds, who shrugged.

"Won't complain sir, the vacation was too good to last. If our luck holds, we just might win the pot." he replied easily.

O'Neill huffed bemusedly before setting his features in a hard line. "Alright, here's the game plan. SG-1 will go down first, make sure the place has air and gravity. Once we're good, SG-3 and SG-9 will join us, and we'll cover as much ground as we can. Our priority is that transmitter; when that's silent, then we can figure out who owns this joint and why."

"Acceptable Colonel. We have several spacesuits and a naquadah generator in the hold, you're free to use them." Pendergast gestured to the bridge exit. Ironwood frowned again, but he held his questions.

Carter switched her gaze. "Sir, perhaps we should take SG-25 for additional-"

"No." O'Neill interrupted, silencing her. When he glanced up, he was unperturbed at the multiple confused looks coming his way. "All we're doing is scouting it out. After we figure out what the place is for, then we'll bring in techs from Earth. In and out, that's all we're doing."

"Alright sir." she answered quietly, nodding quickly. Daniel watched the man with puzzled silence, while Teal'c reacted with only an aside glance.

"Any other questions." he glanced around, finding uncertainty but no disagreement. "Perfect, lets roll."

But before the meeting adjourned, Ozpin tapped his cane on the floor. "Someone from Remnant should accompany you."

"Say what?" O'Neill snapped his head over, milliseconds before everyone else laid their eyes on the headmaster. Despite the attention the man was undaunted.

"This is an affair that directly affects all of Remnant. An inhabitant of this world should play a role in exploring this place." he explained, turning his gaze from one person to another.

Carter nervously coughed into a fist. "That's not a good idea. The Colonel's right, we shouldn't get anyone else involved."

"Why not?" Ironwood questioned, raising a brow.

"Personnel attached to our mission have a tendency to perish, whether they be SGC forces or others. We have observed this happen on many occasions." Teal'c spoke flatly, despite the raised brows turned his way. "Whatever individuals you wish to join us will likely not return with their lives."

"Real comforting." Reynolds mumbled.

"Regulations tend to get played very loose at the SGC, but this is going too far. Risking personnel for vanity has a habit of getting people killed." Pendergast warned firmly, casting a displeased expression onto the headmaster.

"Nevertheless, I insist." Ozpin said forcefully, briefly locking gazes with O'Neill. The brief act made both men bristle.

"I'm okay with it." Daniel interrupted, breaking the duel of wills. "This is a risky mission, but if its to help our new friends, then why not?" he finished with an easygoing shrug. O'Neill creased his brow at the man, who replied with a wave in his direction. A quiet groan left him.

"Fine." he muttered ruefully, causing Pendergast to grind his teeth together. After rubbing his brow, he turned his eyes to Ozpin. "That leg of yours means you're out. Ironwood?" he switched to the general, who tried clasping his hands before stopping himself. "You in?"

"I'm afraid I can't join you. Even if regulations allowed me to enter potential combat operations like this without an escort." he grimaced, lowering his head to the arm limply hanging by his side. "My prosthetics malfunction every time I come up here. I doubt it'll be any different on the moon."

"Yeah, figured. Means you're gonna want someone you can trust on this job. I think I know just the guy then." O'Neill shifted his weight, feeling a smile coming on.

It died immediately when Ozpin shook his head. "I believe someone well versed in military etiquette would be a better choice."

"I agree." Teal'c rumbled, statuesque even when O'Neill shot him a glance.

Ironwood brought up his functional hand to rub his chin, the start of a smile crossing his features. "Actually, I think I have just the candidate. Send me back down, I'll have her briefed and ready in fifteen minutes."

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On a level, Pyrrha admired this Bael. She didn't know many people who could say something like that without any emotion, delivering such a shattering line in such a straight faced way. Her list of people who could keep their calm with a gun to their head was marginally larger, but it was no less impressive. Yet this stranger managed to accomplish both, not even batting an eye to the reprisal following her pronouncement.

At the moment however, she wasn't feeling charitable. In fact, Pyrrha was feeling as close to the opposite as one could get.

"You _lie_." she spat, her scowl deepening by the second.

She had dropped the bottle to yank Miló off her back, needing a second to transform it to the rifle mode. That allowed her to point the weapon's barrel a few centimeters from the horned girl's face, the gun quivering solely because she was shaking with anger. Despite the shivers, her curled finger was as steady as could be.

Bael flicked her eyes from the rifle's bore to the redhead. "Why?"

"Why what?" she snapped, applying more pressure to the trigger. Nevertheless she felt some confusion; she expected a plea, maybe an apology. Her calmness was distinctly off putting.

"Why would I lie to you?" she inquired neutrally. In spite of the gun hovering centimeters from her face, she leaned over to pick up the soda can, not reacting to the barrel tracking her movements. "How does lying benefit me in any way?"

"You..." Pyrrha clamped her mouth shut, realizing she had no answer.

Taking a swig, Bael once again laid her eyes on the guest. "You're ready to kill me, or at least hurt me, just for that. Without so much as a moment of hesitation you rejected my answer."

"You are, you have to be. Ruby could never kill anyone." the redhead shot back, though unease shown on her features.

"The truth of the matter is a tad complicated." the green haired girl replied, taking another drink. "Do you want to hear the whole story? Or are you thinking of shooting me first?"

Breathing deeply, Pyrrha considered the offer. The girl was lying, she was sure of it. There was no way her friend, a kind soul like no other she ever knew, could do anything like what she claimed. It simply wasn't possible, there was no other explanation.

Her certainty didn't stop her from lowering the rifle, letting the barrel point at the bed.

"Alright then." Bael nodded to herself, reaching for her pocket next. Ignoring the rifle twitching her way, she drew a scroll to open, and after tapping a couple icons she held out the device. "Here."

"What's this?" she questioned suspiciously, staying in place.

"My scroll, and a ninety seven second video which took a lot of trouble to get." the horned girl answered, wagging the outstretched device.

Breathing through her nose, the redhead took a hand off Miló to grab the scroll, turning it over so she could see the display. Keeping her finger looped around the trigger, she switched her wary gaze between it and the girl.

"Go ahead. I'd appreciate it if you didn't break my scroll though." she said, polishing off her drink. Though she held plenty of reservation still, Pyrrha tapped the screen.

The background manifested as a grainy mass of colors, almost painful to look at. But after several seconds the wash took shape, showing a low quality video of an amazing sight: a massive ring of people rising up in an inverted cone, widening the further it ascended. There were more people than she had ever seen on Remnant before, though she saw large gatherings like this on Earth television many times. At the bottom level was a thick barrier, separating the viewing stands from a large plain tiled circle, devoid of any objects. An arena.

Pausing the video, she glanced back at the owner.

"Thanks to the battle and subsequent damage to the CCT tower, the official footage of this duel was largely corrupted by the time things calmed down. Proper data backup procedures tend to suffer when impeding doom is on the way." Bael offered, waving at the scroll. "This video came from a small time reporter covering the finalist rounds. He managed to keep his camera intact throughout the crisis, and later published it in some unsavory circles. You'll have to pardon the lack of sound, its a fault of the model he used."

"How'd you get this?" she asked warily.

"Money and some good connections can acquire anything. Or rather Masculum acquired this, I just took it from her. Please, watch." Bael gestured, leaning back onto the bed.

Tapping again, the video immediately zoomed in on the first of the fighters, the redhead needing a few seconds to realize it was Ruby. Despite the low quality of the picture, she could easily see the boundless enthusiasm she displayed, nearly skipping into the field with her scythe in hand. When it switched to the second contestant, she paused again to squint. It was a girl, of medium height and topped by a bobbed hairstyle not unlike Nora's color. Her green and beige outfit was old fashioned, yet when she resumed the girl strolled out to meet the competition in a confident stride.

Just as the two came together to shake hands, Pyrrha halted upon hearing the girl clear her throat.

"Her opponents name was a girl named Penny Polendina, from Atlas. She was a newcomer to the city, but she fought her way to the finals, trouncing everyone she faced. If you can believe it, she and Ruby met before the Festival." she mentioned.

"Really." Pyrrha replied, cautiously intrigued as she glanced back to the scroll.

Bael nodded. "One of the earlier interviews actually had them together, it was pretty obvious to anyone watching they were good pals. I almost wanna say making friends that easily is Ruby's second semblance."

"That's ridiculous." she replied, giving her an odd look.

"Her record begs to differ. If you will." she waved at the scroll once again.

Nodding with a frown, Pyrrha resumed watching. The two girls stood right in front of each other bantering, Ruby apparently laughing at something this Penney said. Only when the camera briefly panned above did they split, taking up stances against one another. Even then, it was clear both were still in good spirits.

Rather than try to trail either competitor, the cameraman kept his device aimed at the general area of the melee. He obviously knew tracking the red toned huntress was next to impossible, given how she disappeared in a blur within a second of the match starting. A brief flash suddenly yielded Ruby lunging with her weapon held high, only to be met by a rack of swords sprouting from Penny's back.

Around and around she zoomed, periodically striking at her slower opponent. Yet the girl was undaunted, twisting her black swords around in amazing patterns that left Pyrrha confused. She thought the numerous blades were connected to her via a wire, but she never saw this level of control before. Her own semblance would be hard pressed to replicate this girl's feats with one weapon, especially once the grinning fighter brought out even more from her back. Whenever the two clashed, they seemed to be silhouetted together in a spark of light. It was clear both were smiling.

Ruby stopped a short distance away, twirling her weapon as Penny drew her swords closer, forming an outline of wings around her. She said something to the red huntress, quite plainly enjoying herself immensely. Her opponent laughed, the silence damping the otherwise jovial mood she clearly felt. When Pyrrha checked the runtime, her breath caught; it was close to over.

Crouching down, Ruby planted the scythe behind her and fired, launching her into the maw of the swinging swords. A half dozen meters away she twisted to avoid a slash, but then she jerked out of the way of something else, something Pyrrha couldn't see. She had to rewind the video a few seconds to check, but she was certain she was dodging nothing. Yet the girl acted like she did, doing the same avoiding motion as before.

Moving more and more erratically, Ruby parried a double bladed strike and launched herself into the air, before yanking the weapon around to swipe. Instead of the sword, she cut the nearly invisible lines connecting them to their owner, sending them tumbling out of sight. A few meters from the ground, Ruby raised her scythe in a wide diagonal slice towards a now completely exposed Penny. She made no effort to slow or stop.

Miló fell from Pyrrha's hand, the redhead gasping in utter shock. She recoiled at the scroll, horrified yet unable to look away. Unable to stop herself from watching the blow cleave through Penny's Aura, and into the girl herself.

Mouth agape, her wide eyes drank in the sight of Ruby landing in a crouch behind Penny, turning around to examine her handiwork. Around the camera people were bolting upwards, experiencing the same shock Pyrrha now felt. The cameraman still had a good line of sight on the arena however, though the video was beginning to shake uncontrollably. Just as she saw Ruby drop her scythe, the screen turned black.

Pyrrha's breath was coming out in short pants, her quivering hand just barely holding onto the device. Her hollow expression left the screen, falling on the calm girl observing her dazed silence.

"So, now you know the truth." Bael said simply. When she held out a hand, the redhead almost dropped the scroll before she could reclaim it.

She swallowed, forcing a lump down. "W-why?"

"Why did I show you, or why did she do it?" the green haired girl asked evenly, watching Pyrrha recover her wits. "I showed you because Masculum would've turned this into a game. You put a gun to my head this easily, so one of you would've gotten hurt if she were here." she said, briefly making the redhead grimace. "For why it happened, its simple."

Pyrrha watched her flop back to stare at the ceiling, sighing wistfully. She wanted to demand answers, but the sight of her cheerful friend in the video kept coming back, replaying itself every time she closed her eyes. The redhead couldn't reconcile Ruby, who had hardly changed from the excitable girl she met from the early days of Beacon, being capable of the act she witnessed.

"That happened because of a wanted criminal by the name of Emerald Sustri, who possesses a semblance which allows her to manipulate minds, so her wanted poster claims anyway." Bael explained, bringing her back to the present. "You'd have to watch the video again to see for yourself, but Ruby's last attack was likely meant to remove the last of Penny's weapons, not kill her."

"But _why_?" Pyrrha snapped angrily, before immediately shrinking back.

Bael flicked her head up, proceeding her torso rising. "Emerald made Ruby kill Penny at the command of Cinder Fall."

The redhead opened her mouth, but she suddenly stopped; the name struck a chord within her, dredging up memories of her research of the battle. But it also made her remember something else, during the flight returning to Beacon.

"I'm not aware of how much you know, but Cinder Fall was the mastermind behind the entire event. Using the White Fang and a number of Grimm, she orchestrated a campaign of terror to frighten Vale in the days leading to the Festival, culminating in this duel gone wrong. The outcome of this quite literally set Beacon ablaze." she said, tapping the scroll. "Its very likely she could've succeeded, and this place would've been infested with Grimm. Every account I've seen says the affair was dangerously close."

"Yeah." she agreed quietly. Still processing the information, she had to force herself to make eye contact.

"I'm not sure what her goal was though. Maybe weakening the kingdom for another party, vengeance perhaps, there's even a popular rumor that she wanted to steal the Fall Maiden. You'd have to be an idiot to buy that though." she explained, rolling her eyes at the last part.

Pyrrha swallowed another lump, right before a thought occurring to her. "How do you know all this?"

"I'm more connected than I appear to be." the diminutive girl offered, lackadaisically waving at her unassuming form. "I wanted to know what happened here when my team and I enrolled, and this is what my research came to. Plus, well." she looked to the far wall, adopting a sly grin. "Cinder has a bounty of _one_ _million_ lien, dead or alive. What could you do with that much money? I'm planning on being the first to claim her head."

The redhead sighed, slipping a boot underneath Miló to fling it upwards, snatching the weapon in mid air. Using her semblance or just bending over were options too, but she couldn't shake her suspicion of the girl, even after all she did.

"Thanks." she said softy, collapsing the weapon to place under her shield.

"In return." went Bael expectantly, causing Pyrrha to glance back guardedly. "I want a bit of information from you."

Turning to face her, she readied a stance. "Yes?"

"I told you a secret your friend didn't want to share. Now what are you going to do?" the green haired girl asked simply.

Pyrrha frowned, raising a brow. "What do you mean?"

"You came here seeking knowledge, and you apparently got what you wanted. What are you going to do with this information?" Bael slid off the bed to her feet, taking a second to straighten out her clothes. "Are you going to confront Ruby for keeping this from you? Will you tell your teammates? What?"

Taking shallow breaths, Pyrrha frowned in thought, briefly looking away. She hadn't considered what she would do after confronting Masculum, not anticipating anything like the bombshell she received.

"I'm... I'm not sure." she answered after a minute.

"A poor answer, but I understand why. It's not every day your world gets shaken up. But between you and me." Bael raised her arms to stretch for a second before heading to the mini fridge again. "If that were you responsible for Penny's death, how would you feel?"

Pyrrha looked away, frowning as unhappy memories bobbed to the surface. The redhead hardened her heart long ago to cope with the discovery of what Jaffa really were, and what the SGC expected her to do after she joined. It was easy to look at the matter from her current perspective, in spite of the outlook disturbing her on a fundamental level. She wasn't blind to her weaker moral code nowadays. But Ruby didn't have the views she did now, nor the experiences which shattered many of her beliefs.

"I'd be devastated." she got out, taking a deep breath.

"Would you want vengeance?" Bael idly asked, heading back to the bed while ignoring the sidelong look she received. "In her place, would you want to find the one responsible, and make them pay?"

"What's it matter to you?" she snapped, leveling a hard stare on her for the questions.

"Only curious." Bael shrugged, her eyes swiveling downwards. "You dropped your water."

Just as Pyrrha peered to the floor, a knock came from the door. Both girls snapped to the door, the green haired resident sighing before heading over, brushing past her without a word. When it swung open, the redhead identified the arrival from the forest.

"Hey Bael, you busy?" went Valentine, his young voice sounding nervous.

"Just finished up actually. Damage control in the south, you know how it is." the horned girl shrugged, deliberately glancing back to her guest.

"Yeah, sure. Is that about the online game you showed me the other day?" he asked confusedly.

Swinging the door open, Bael gestured for the boy to enter, and he complied in a light jog. The girl stayed in the same spot however, hand on the door as she made eye contact with her previous guest. Pyrrha took the hint and walked, steadying her nerves along the way.

"Yeah, so... hang on." Valentine caught, causing the redhead to stop to look at him. The jacket clad boy was frowning in thought, raising a hand to point at her. "I remember you. You were with Ruby the other day, she brought you guys back from the forest."

Before she could reply, Bael stepped between them. "You wanted to see me Val?"

Frowning slightly, Pyrrha resumed her exit, grabbing the door to swing shut behind her. She didn't try locking it; it was Bael's room, she could take care of her own privacy. But an impulse kept her by the door for a moment, idly curious as to what the two could be talking about. Leaning in close, she strained to listen in, steadying her breathing to minimize the interference.

" _You're kidding, right?_ "

" _Well, who else can I ask?_ "

" _Someone besides me?_ "

" _But you're, um, you know what I'll just say it. You're good at the whole people thing, reading them and stuff. All I can do is tell if somebody's lying or not. I just want some advice, okay?_ "

Backing away from the door, Pyrrha raised a brow at unseen duo. She had a decent guess of what the subject matter was, but she knew it wasn't her business, and she wasn't going to change that anytime soon. Ultimately, the best thing she could do was turn around and walk away, and she proceeded to do just that.

When she passed by a window the warmth seemed to vanish from the air, making her stop. Pausing to back up, she peered through the reinforced glass to the sky above, noting that a line of grey clouds hid the sun from view. Watching the dark masses for a moment, Pyrrha saw uneasily how the clouds were blanketing the sky, a slow but inexorable march to cover it all from view. An ominous feeling wormed its way into her gut at the sight.

Sighing to herself, the redhead turned away to stride off, her feet carrying her back to the guest dorm, and the tense atmosphere within. In no way was she looking forward to the upcoming encounter.

Seconds later her feet stopped again, the young woman taking a deep breath before turning to the side. What met her eyes was another door, just like the one she left a minute ago. But this one was different, even if it didn't appear to be. This door made her step forward, raising a fist to knock; a part of her hoped there was no one inside. Alas, she wasn't so lucky.

Pyrrha couldn't help flinching when the door cracked open, revealing the girl she didn't want to see right now. The red toned huntress needed less than a second to identify the arrival, a smile crossing her expression. "Hey Pyrrha."

"Hey, Ruby." she reluctantly greeted, forcing herself to make eye contact.

Her uncertainty took a nose dive when Ruby's smile vanished, the silver eyed girl poking her head out the door to furtively examine at the hallway. After a second she withdrew, affixing a weighted stare upon the redhead.

"You alone?" she questioned directly.

Raising a brow, Pyrrha nodded. "Y-yeah, just me."

"You sure?" Ruby stressed, unusually serious.

"I am. What's going on?" she asked confusedly, going so far as to glance at the empty hallway herself.

Sighing in relief, the girl nodded. "That's good. So, why'd you stop by?"

"I..." Pyrrha trailed off, sucking in a breath through clenched teeth.

Aside from the weird behavior, the redhead had no idea how to approach the problem facing her. How could she tell Ruby that she knew her secret? How did she say "I know you killed your opponent" without ruining their friendship? Nothing in her experience could help her figure this out; the indecision made her squeeze her eyes shut, the redhead needing to take a deep breath.

Fortunately for her sake, her crisis was put on hold when Ruby leaned back to peer at something inside.

"It's just Pyrrha, she's alone." she said, causing an audible sigh to be heard even from where she was. Nodding at the unseen person, she glanced to her and backed up, waving a hand in invitation. "Come on in."

Chewing on her lip, Pyrrha toed through the entrance, turning sideways when Ruby swung the door shut. Raising a brow again, the redhead swept her eyes around until they landed on the girl sitting on a bed.

Weiss looked up from the book in her hands and sighed. "Hi."

"Hey, um..." pursing her lips, she hesitated on her wording.

"You were alone right? No one sent you?" Weiss unexpectedly asked, a strong trace of worry in her tone.

"No one, why?" she answered worriedly.

Weiss sighed again. "That's good. Good." she flopped back to stare at the jury rigged bed above her. "That's very good."

With a hollow look Pyrrha glanced to Ruby, who sighed apologetically.

"Her sisters in town, and, well, she wants to avoid her." she explained with a grimace.

"Oh." Pyrrha's expression fell away, glancing back at the white toned girl. "Um..."

"Winter, she's... I don't wanna deal with her, okay?" Weiss shook her head, groaning when her gaze fell.

"I, um, didn't know you had a sister actually." the redhead admitted, causing Ruby to wince.

"I almost wish I didn't. Winter isn't like Yang, she's..." rubbing her temples, Weiss dropped her head to sigh. "I know this is a terrible thing to say, but I wish she was on the other side of the world now."

Ruby sighed before approaching the girl, hands outstretched placatingly; she gave every indicator of preparing for a hug. "It's okay. I told you this before, but if you really needed to my dad could take you in for a while. Help you get on your feet and stuff."

Standing in place awkwardly, Pyrrha could do nothing but watch the display. If waiting meant putting off the confrontation, then she would gladly do it.

"If only that'd work." Weiss shook her head, raising it to give the guest a pained smile. "I almost want to ask you to take me through the Stargate. Let's see my father try to haul me back then."

"That's, ah, little extreme." Ruby winced, sitting down next to her with her arms still held up.

Weiss huffed, rolling her eyes to peer at the ceiling. "Dunno where I'd go. Cimmeria was..." she shook her head again, grimacing. "Earth then, maybe?"

"Weiss, I think you're overreacting." Pyrrha raised a hand at her, which failed to stop the girl from snorting.

"Can't be worse than here." she muttered, making the redhead cough nervously. She didn't want to share details about recent events on Earth, knowing exactly how well that would go down. It was shocking enough when she found out about a terrorist attack which claimed three thousand lives and the subsequent invasion of the nation responsible, since she saw it in realtime.

"She's right, this isn't the end of the world." the red toned girl tried, her words having no effect.

"Don't think I could stay at Cheyenne Mountain though, too crowded, and too deep underground." she continued anyway, her gaze landing on the window. "Wonder how expensive apartments are on Earth? Jaune has one, so it can't be too bad." she sighed wryly, shaking her head. "I'm almost tempted to ask him if I can crash there for a while. Too bad he's a boy though, otherwise it'd be okay."

"Weiss, seriously. Stop it." Ruby frowned, lightly tapping on her shoulder.

"I mean, a boy and girl living together under one roof? It'd be like we were together." she shuddered dramatically. "I mean, don't get me wrong. Jaune's a nice guy and all, but I'm not interested in anything like that with him." she finished with a shrug, glancing up.

"Weiss, give it a rest. We'll figure something out, even if I have to hide you in my basement." Ruby consoled, her attempted joke falling flat.

Then the half smile on her face dropped, the girl blinking in confusion at her friend ignoring her. Following Weiss's wide stare, she turned to the redhead a couple meters away, who had clasped her hands behind her back and looked away. Before their eyes her cheeks were turning an interesting shade of red.

"What's the matter?" Ruby asked worriedly, rising to her feet.

Pyrrha shifted her weight, the redness deepening until her cheeks were the same color as her hair. Slowly creaking her head to them, she visibly fought the urge to present her back to them. When she opened her mouth, she audibly gulped.

"He, is, ah..." was all she could get out before clamping shut.

Weiss stood up, her own mouth opening while her eyes widened. "Pyrrha, is Jaune seeing somebody?"

The redhead's entire body seemed to flinch, but after a long span, she accomplished a drawn out nod.

For several seconds the room was deathly quiet, until Weiss unexpectedly pumped a fist in a sizable grin. "I knew it!"

"Ah..." with an empty look, Ruby let her arms fall. "Huh."

"I knew it, I knew it, I knew it." Weiss was all but dancing in victory, before standing tall to face the blushing redhead. "I mean, don't take this the wrong way, but I was sure you guys didn't make enough to afford your own apartments. Otherwise, all of you would've moved out of the mountain by now." she explained, shaking her head and turning away. "Wow, that's really something. Who would've thought he'd luck out like this? Congratulations Jaune, you found miss right after all."

"Uh, Weiss?" Ruby went insistently, tugging on her shirtsleeve.

"Can only imagine what she's like. They say there's a person out there for everybody, but I don't think that meant really _out there_. Still, good for him. I'm sure whoever he's with will be happy." the white haired girl waved her hands as she spoke, needing a second to realize Ruby was still tugging. "What?"

When the red huntress pointed, she followed the finger to Pyrrha once again. In the couple seconds she wasn't looking, the blush had spread across her entire face, her cheeks in particular were nearly purple. Shrinking back, the cringing redhead's eyes flicked to the window, like she was considering jumping through the glass.

Her joyful expression fell away. Weiss felt her features go slack, everything drawing back in agonizing slowness. At last she raised a shaking hand, pointing a single finger at the redhead.

" _You?_ "

Swallowing a lump with a strong wince, Pyrrha quickly nodded.

"Wait, waitwaitwait." Ruby swung her hands in front of herself, nearly hitting her teammate. When she halted in a defensive posture, she too pointed at the guest, her dumbstruck face locked onto the older girl. "Wait. So, you. And Jaune."

"Y-y-yes." Pyrrha admitted weakly, looking as if she wanted to slip through the floor.

Weiss slumped, one of her eyes twitching. "Both of you, all this time. How... long..."

"Six months." she spoke in a near whisper, looking away.

"That... that explains a lot." Ruby said to herself, frowning in thought as she stared at the far wall.

Feeling the need to sit, the red toned girl backed up to plop onto the bed, Weiss joining her a moment later. Her brow was scrunched up, pondering the admission she accidentally received. After a moment, she looked up to the redhead and took a breath.

"Why didn't you say anything?" she asked confusedly, watching the older girl rub her hands together.

"Its... its complicated, okay?" Pyrrha replied weakly, a lackluster shrug failing to help her loosen up.

Weiss exhaled slowly, briefly massaging her temples. "Who would've thought?"

"Well, Yang's and my parents were on the same team, so it's not unheard of I guess." the red toned girl offered before going back to her blushing friend. "Speaking of Yang, she's gonna be all over this once-"

In the blink of an eye Pyrrha crossed the distance to clamp a hand over Ruby's mouth, the suddenness of her action forcing the smaller girl back on the bed. Weiss flinched back from the struggling pair, eyes wide at the unexpected move. Her surprise however paled in comparison to the older girl's raw shock.

"Don't!" she all but yelped, almost shouting. "Don't tell anyone!"

Staring fearfully with the redhead's hand still on her face, Ruby quickly nodded. Sucking in a breath, Pyrrha withdrew to shrink away, visibly shuddering while the girls watched mutedly. A shaky breath escaped her as she sighed, running a hand down her face.

"Its a secret, okay? No ones supposed to know." she explained, flashing a pained look as she slumped. "Ren, Nora, and my commander knows about." she hesitated, swallowing a lump. "About us. And now you two."

Ruby leaned forward, unsettled curiosity on her face as she composed herself. "Why's it a big deal? Not like there's a rule against dating a teammate, right?"

"Actually." Pyrrha sucked in a breath, aware of Weiss raising a brow. "Yeah. Its called fraternization. And its, its a criminal offense. Either of us get brought up on charges, and its a court martial."

"Really?" the smaller girl questioned in surprise, raising a brow too.

"Wait, hang on." Weiss swung a hand, frowning. "You two were on different teams, how would that be a problem then?"

"Jaune's trying to make officer, so he can get placed in command of his own SG team. If he did get brought up on charges, that'd be the death of his career." Pyrrha said forcefully, trying to steady her rough breathing.

"His own team? But, wait, he already has..." Ruby's confusion fell away, her eyes widening in understanding. "Oh. _Ooohh._ "

"Exactly, its the only way all four of us could be together again. That's why we've been careful this whole time. But when he saw an ad for an apartment, I..." she sighed, dropping her head and crossing her arms. "I knew it was a bad idea, but, but..." her hair ruffled with the shaking. "I thought we could make it work."

"I get it." Ruby said quietly, pushing off the bed to approach the older girl. "But why are you still worried about what they think?" Pyrrha glanced to her in confusion, frowning. "You're home now. If the SGC won't let you be together, then why does it matter when you're here?" she offered, mustering a tiny smile.

"I agree. You guys don't have to go off and fight aliens anymore. Just tell the SGC you're through." Weiss tried, standing up as well yet keeping a distance.

Pyrrha sighed, finally meeting Ruby's gaze. "But... I don't want to quit."

Just as she feared, the hopeful look on her face disintegrated. "What?"

"I want to stay with Stargate Command." she said carefully, wincing at the hurt shock on her face. "I know it's dangerous, I know it's stifling. But in the past two years, I've done more good out in the wider galaxy then I've done my entire life here."

"But..." Ruby feebly protested.

Sighing, she planted a hand on the girl's shoulder. "I don't want to leave forever. I'll come back, but I believe my place is out there."

Weiss let out a breath. "So, once this missions over, you're heading back to Earth. Where there's rules for everything, where you and Jaune can't be open about being together."

"Yeah." Pyrrha agreed, averting her gaze as her hand fell.

"So that's how it is." Ruby murmured, sighing when she glanced up. "Then I guess we should make up for time?"

"Yeah, of course." she agreed, trying to smile.

Ruby nodded glumly. "You know, I remember saying we should take Eliane to visit the Stargate here. Is it okay if we make it a group trip?"

"Of course." Pyrrha repeated, finally gathering up a weak smile which failed to uplift the mood of anyone in the room. As bad as it was though, Pyrrha found herself a little relieved at getting the truth off her chest. If it meant she didn't have to confront Ruby, then she was fine with the admission. Nothing seemed to outright change, but she felt a little better now.

She wondered how long it would last.

...

00000

...

A flash of light announced three new occupants in the ring compartment, getting the eight men in the room to spare a look towards the newcomers. Two of the arrivals took the method of transportation well enough, given the circumstances. The last did not however, staying on her feet only by sheer force of will. When the light vanished one of the men held up an offered hand towards the woman, ready to help in spite of protocol dictating otherwise.

"Commander?" Ironwood checked, his tone layered with concern.

"I'm... I'm fine sir." the white haired woman replied shakily, arms crossed behind her back in an attempt to halt a breakdown. Her eyes creaked open, revealing brilliant blue orbs which roamed over the cramped room with raw astonishment.

"You can still choose to opt out of this commander." Ironwood offered, the soldier accompanying him standing nearby just in case.

She shook her head. "I'll be fine sir. I agreed to this mission."

Nodding, the General glanced at his temporary assistant. "Major Washington, thank you for the help."

"Its what I do sir." the leader of SG-9 replied, giving a brief salute to the Atlesian which was promptly returned. That done he turned to join his awaiting team, accepting a vest of equipment from one of his already prepared men.

Straightening herself up, the new arrival followed the limping General across the tiny space, meeting the eyes of the several men in the room. Her gaze roamed over their splotched uniforms and black weapons, and they responded in kind to her highly visible outfit and rapier on her hip. Despite the attention neither side did anything, the men around her resuming what they were doing after a moment.

Adjacent to the room was where Ironwood took her, the woman halting at his side. A glance at the people in this one left her more dumbfounded than ever.

"Colonel." Ironwood greeted flatly, making one of the four separate masses of white and grey end their stooping, his two green suited assistants backing off. When he turned, the head of a greying man entered their view, the strange bulky covering ending at his neck.

"General, that was fast." the man replied, eyes swiveling to his companion. Sighing, he half waddled in the thick outfit to the side in order to face him.

The General was clearly nonplussed by the man's getup, but nevertheless he gestured at his companion. "Colonel, this is Commander Winter of the Atlesian Military. She leads a unit of Specialists I brought directly from Atlas, they're special forces as you would define them." he introduced, promptly reversing himself to the woman. "Commander, Colonel Jack O'Neill, of Earth."

"Commander huh? Nice to meet you." O'Neill offered a hand, or rather a thick glove.

"Colonel, Sir." the stiffening woman responded with a salute instead, which he sighed and returned as best as he could.

"Yeah, you'll have to pardon the spacesuits. Without these, we'd be dead in seconds where we're going." he said, grimacing as he tried to flex. "I hate these things."

"Sir, your oxygen tank?" went one of the technicians, eliciting a fresh groan as the man returned to whatever he was doing.

Ironwood coughed into a fist. "Right. Commander." he said authoritatively, causing the woman to come to attention. "For the duration of this mission I'm placing you under Colonel O'Neill's command. Until you return to the ship, you are to obey his orders as if they were my own. Understood?"

"Y-yes General, sir." Winter answered nervously, yet she saluted regardless.

"Excellent. You are a representative of all of Atlas on this mission Commander, and by extension all of Remnant. I expect you to act accordingly." he commanded, before cracking a thin smile. "I have faith in you Commander. I know you'll do splendidly."

"Thank you sir." she responded, clearly awed as she stole glances at her surroundings.

"The pleasures all mine Commander. Now, one more thing." Ironwood held out his functional hand. "Your sidearm."

Winter was still for a second, plainly uneasy at the order. Nevertheless, she reached to her holster to withdraw a pistol, carefully placing onto his open palm.

"I don't believe this will work where you're going. Consider it a precaution." he told her, stuffing the weapon into his jacket. That done, he glanced to another of the suited team. "Major?"

Following his gaze, Winter first saw a pair of crewmen lugging a weird metal object to a bespectacled man in a spacesuit, who took a deep breath before accepting the heavy load. Her internal questions ceased when a blonde woman lumbered over, somehow accomplishing the task with more grace than the Colonel (although that wasn't saying much).

"Sir?" the blonde replied, coming to a stop a short distance away. Her attitude was definitely military, unlike the more laidback Colonel before; risking a peek, Winter noted the measured respect the General displayed to this woman.

"Major Carter, could you please give the commander a weapon? Any will do." Ironwood requested, a weird sight unto itself.

"Of course." she turned to an awaiting crewman. "Lieutenant, your M9."

The man in question hesitated for a moment, but with a gulp he drew a small black pistol from his hip to offer, only to raise an eyebrow at the white haired woman disregarding him. For a second she ignored the man, creasing her brow at the blonde instead.

"Commander?" Ironwood questioned, frowning. Carter likewise wrinkled her expression at the woman's staring, until she raised a finger to point.

"I'm sure I've seen you before. Yesterday I believe, I asked you if you saw my sister." she said, roaming her gaze over her counterparts face.

Carter stiffened. "I'm... sure you're mistaken."

"I'm certain I did." Winter pressed, finally noticing the offered weapon; with a nod she took the pistol and placed the black weapon in her holster, pushing her curiosity aside.

"Anyway." Ironwood interrupted, catching the Major sighing. "I'll be on the bridge. Colonel, I leave her in your care."

"Fantastic." went O'Neill a short distance away, right before he grunted at something a crewman did. "Daniel, Teal'c?"

"I am prepared." a tall man with a golden emblem on his forehead rumbled, peering to the arrival while a tall staff stood upright in his grip.

Beside him the bespectacled man groaned under the load in his arms. "All set. The gravity better be weaker down there."

"Great." from across the room, O'Neill jabbed a hand back at the other space. "You, go wait with the other teams. You'll head down with them."

"Yes sir." Winter replied with a perfunctory salute, the Colonel giving her a lackluster one in return.

Exchanging one more look with Ironwood, Winter turned back the way she came, leaving him behind as she came into the cramped room. It was there she stopped, coming under eight pairs of eyes, each one seeming to bore into the lone woman in their midst. She crossed her arms and straightened up, subtly preparing to draw her rapier if any of the men tried a hostile act. A few broke eye contact, turning to appear busy with anything else.

One middle aged man detached from the group, clearing his throat into a fist as he stopped an arms length away. She took note of his splotched green and black uniform, briefly letting her attention focus on the digital pattern of the camouflage; while it certainly stood out where they were, she imagined it might be effective in a woodlands area. The flat billed cap he wore seemed more like officer's headwear, and his demeanor supported her guess.

"Hi." he greeted, giving her a friendly smile. As if by reflex he adjusted the strap his rifle was attached to, the short black weapon looking disquietingly utilitarian to her point of view, not to mention a touch menacing. That done, he stuck a hand out. "Colonel Albert Reynolds, United States Marine Corps."

"Commander Winter, Atlesian Specialist Operations Unit. Sir." she greeted back, giving a brief shake before letting go. Idly squeezing her hand, she noted approvingly his rough grip was free of any clamminess.

"Nice to meet you. This is my team, SG-3." Reynolds jabbed a hand over his shoulder, drawing her gaze to the three men clad and armed like him. "I know they don't look like much, but these are some of the best men in my nations armed forces." he then creaked his head around to narrow his brow. "And are very respectful."

Winter saw blankly how the three men behind him abruptly looked away, two opting to check their short rifles while the third appeared engrossed by the metal ceiling. All of a sudden, her already substantial list of questions multiplied, although a high pitched whoosh noise from the adjacent room managed to solve one. Resisting the urge to glance, she opted to clear her throat instead, catching the man's attention before he could return to his team.

"Yes?" he checked, giving her an expectant look.

Swiveling her eyes, Winter spied the other team of four watching the exchange with dry looks, wanting to ask why their uniforms and weapons were different. But there was a more pressing matter she needed dealt with first.

"Colonel, to the best of my knowledge there is no life on the moon. Its a barren desert." she began, earning a nod. "So why are water trained soldiers like yourselves being brought in?"

For a second Reynolds did nothing, before unexpectedly dropping his head and covering his mouth, shifting his weight like he was upset. She was certain he was mumbling something into his palm, but she couldn't quite tell. Frowning to herself, she caught one of the so called marine troops giving her a brief shake of his head.

...

00000

...

Creaking open, the door made a quiet squeak on its hinges as it swung, moving until the tiny amount of force behind the action vanished. All the while, the hand on the outside slid along the surface, allowing for a mass of blonde hair to stick into the guest dorm.

"Weird, doors unlocked but nobodies home." Yang observed, carefully striding in while she glanced around.

After her came another girl, this one black haired and far less cautious, though she too spared a look at the room. "I told you no one was inside."

"Wrong, you said you didn't hear anybody." the blonde corrected, stopping in the center of the room to plant her fists on her hips. Slowly rotating in her spot, she swiveled to examine as much of the space as she could, her search turning no one but her teammate.

"You should've called ahead." Blake said dryly, crossing her arms as she leveled a displeased expression on her friend. Behind her the door creaked again, slowly closing on its own. Neither girl paid attention to the movement.

Yang waved her off, finally coming to a stop. "Not a big deal. Shouldn't be hard to track them down anyway, they're somewhere on Remnant this time."

"Real understanding. Since they're not here I'm out." Blake uncrossed her arms, looking over her shoulder when she heard the door latch. "It's just the movies, so I don't know why you needed my help in the first place. So let's get going, I'll call... what are you doing?"

Yang froze with her hand outstretched, centimeters from the tiny knob of the closet. Despite being caught, the blonde mustered enough confidence to flop her head over to smirk.

"You wanna check out their stuff?" she asked devilishly.

"No. For one, its their belongings. Second, that's not our business, and..." Blake sighed tiredly, slapping her face. "You're not gonna listen, are you?"

The pop of the closet was her reply, the faunus running the hand down her face with a drawn out groan. Slumping, she did little to hide her disapproving mood. It crossed her mind to physically yank the blonde away, but she dismissed the thought; she was stronger, so forcing her wouldn't work. Still, grabbing her by the ankles to drag her out did sound appealing.

Ignoring her friend's attitude, Yang rummaged inside for a moment until she withdrew, one grin and one alien weapon richer. "Awesome."

"Why did you pick that?" Blake questioned dryly.

"Because." Yang replied, turning the Zat over in her hand. "When am I gonna get the chance to see one of these bad boys ever again?" Even though she was smiling, the blonde was clearly taking pains to avoid pointing it at herself this time.

"One of those things put you out of commission." the black haired girl reminded, standing up straight to level a mild glare at her.

"Yeah, but that was because I didn't know what it was then. Now I do." she shrugged off, popping the top piece with a tiny whirring noise.

"That doesn't mean you're an expert." Blake told her, grumbling when she placed it on her gauntlets, evidently testing how well they fit together. "Seriously, put it back before-"

Her bow flicked, the growing frown vanishing in an instant. Yang ceased her playing to snap her head over, her own half grin dropping. The deep inhale from the black haired girl was clue enough to what she heard, a moment before she too heard a faint voice from beyond the door, growing louder by the second. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the blonde overreacted.

A yelp escaped Blake when Yang grabbed her arm, yanking her across the room to the closet. Ahead of any protest, the blonde threw it open to shove her inside, the black haired girl tripping over the duffels on the floor before she caught herself. Just as she grabbed a coat peg to steady herself, her partner dove inside the tiny space as well, pulling the door closed behind her. However, she did leave a tiny crack open, allowing a sliver of light into the closet. Right as Blake opened her mouth to chew her out, the main door swung open.

"Huh, weird. Coulda swore I locked the door before we left." went Jaune's voice, along with the barely audible sound of the latch being tested.

"Small wonder, I almost dragged you out in the first place." Ren pointed out, a moment later closing the door; the faunus strained to hear, but she only detected two sets of footsteps.

Upon realizing Yang was hunched over the tiny crack, Blake sighed and tried approaching the entrance. A powerful hand landing on her shoulder caused her to look up, a scowl meeting the blonde's wide eyed expression. With a sour groan Blake rolled her eyes and nodded, getting her to sigh in relief. With little to do until the boys inevitably discovered them, she crawled under Yang to peer into the light, blinking as her vision adjusted.

Jaune strolled into her sight, unclasping the sword from his belt. Behind him trailed Ren, taking a second to rub his shoulder on his way to a bed.

"Feel better?" he asked, pulling out a small shopping bag from under the bed, a glance confirming he was grabbing clothes.

Stopping by the desk, Jaune sighed. "A little." he answered, peering over his shoulder. "Taking a shower?"

"Yeah." the sable haired young man replied, setting Stormflower on the bed. Next came the sleeves, the fabric being unceremoniously tossed onto the bed. "I really needed the practice, but there's no way I'm using the arena washroom."

Blake heard Yang's breath catch, for reasons she understood in full. Before their eyes Ren undid the front of his over shirt, allowing him to pull it off to join the sleeves. For a second the black haired girl forgot to breath, watching him turn around as he grabbed the bottom of his shirt to lift. What lay underneath was something she could only gape at: a toned chest like few she had ever seen, rippling with muscles. From six pack abs to a pair of well defined pecs, he was like something out of a dream. Although his form was still relatively thin, his build was nevertheless jaw dropping. Even a couple thin scars on his side failed to take away from his appeal.

Both voyeurs hardly noticed Jaune approaching the sable haired young man carefully, too engrossed in the view to take their eyes off him. Coughing into a fist, the blond composed himself before his partner.

"So, clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. Wouldn't you say?" he half joked, his tone strained. For an idle second Blake wondered if he were jealous.

"Obscurity and a competence is the life best worth living." Ren said back, stopping as he flicked his head over. "I read that book of quotes too you know."

"Yeah. Yeah..." Jaune turned his head away, as Ren grabbed a towel. "Hey, do you mind if I check on it?"

"I do actually." he stopped, his voice suddenly cold. While not enough to break their interest, Blake exchanged a look with Yang, raising a brow.

Jaune held up a hand placatingly, keeping a safe distance. "I'm not trying to be nosy or anything. Look, I'm your friend, that means I worry for you."

"Don't, I'm fine." he replied coldly. Dropping his arms to face the blond, the view he presented to the unseen girls was enticing in all the right ways, yet his attitude shift was putting a damper on their enjoyment.

"Well I'll do it anyway. Please? Just for a sec, see if its healed up." he insisted in place.

"It's fine." Ren repeated, narrowing his eyes. The girl's excitement suddenly weakened, Yang sputtering in shock when an icy feeling settled over her mind. Luckily she was almost silent, and it appeared as if the boys weren't paying much attention.

"You're not gonna get over it acting like this." the blond continued, finally planting a hand on his shoulder. Although the sable haired young man flinched, he didn't try forcing the limb off, and after a moment he sighed in defeat.

"Alright." he muttered, reluctantly turning around with a clearly unhappy look. Taking a breath, Jaune moved his hand to push the mass of black hair out of the way, unknowingly in view of Blake and Yang.

On the back of his neck was a thin scar, perhaps fifteen centimeters long and maybe one thick, the faint discoloration showed it was long since healed. It was small and unassuming, looking more like a thin cut than anything else.

Jaune's fingers ghosted over the scar for a moment, before a shrug dislodged him. "Okay, okay."

"There, its fine, like I said." Reaching behind him, Ren fluffed the hair back over his neck. "I'm taking a shower now."

"Its okay, I just wanted to check." Jaune backed up, waving a hand in front of himself. "Say, got any plans for tonight?"

"Think Yang had something she wanted to do. You'll have to check with her." Ren answered, grabbing a towel and powering towards the bathroom without a backwards glance.

"Yeah." Jaune stood in place for a second, taking a deep breath. "Could've handled that better." he muttered, reaching for his pocket only to pat repeatedly. "Did I forget my scroll...? Crap." Tapping on his forehead in self reproach, he jogged to the door and vanished from sight.

A moment later Yang slowly opened the closet door, allowing her and Blake to finally leave. After the dark haired girl shut the closet behind her, the two carefully toed across the dorm, mindful of every step. For a heart pounding second they had trouble with keeping the main door silent, although the sounds from the bathroom told the faunus they were in the clear. With a quiet click the latch sealed, and the pair quickly strolled away.

Identical looks of shock covered the girls the entire time; whatever feelings of excitement they felt had shriveled up into nothing. One little scar had ruined the entire experience, just one unassuming imperfection turned happiness into fearful shock.

Stopping a short distance away, the blonde took a shuddering breath. "Okay, Ren is actually pretty ripped, that's, uh, impressive. Yeah."

"Yang."

"I mean, y-yeah, they seem to have a tough job so that makes sense, haha." she said quickly, forcing a smile on as she gestured.

"Yang." Blake repeated, swallowing a lump.

"Still, he's a-actually hot. Wow, great. Good for you buddy." Yang's voice had risen in pitch, her eyes darting around.

The blonde flinched when Blake roughly grabbed her arms, forcing them to look at each other. Inhaling unsteadily, the dark haired girl kept her features set in a hard line.

"You saw it, don't pretend you didn't." she said, her tone strained.

"Yeah, I saw a hot bod on my friend, and I never knew about it." the blonde replied, battling a grimace.

" _Yang_." Blake warned, only for the blonde to shove her away. "We can't ignore this."

"No, we can't. Ren is hot, that's what I saw, okay?" Yang snapped, a glower taking over.

The dark haired girl stabbed a finger at her. "You know what that was. You were right there when Jaune told us what's out there."

"And how do you know!?" she snarled, briefly taking Blake aback. "Its a big world out there. Galaxy, whatever. There's a thousand things which could've made a scar like that."

"Then why'd he hide it?" she retorted. "Face it, Ren is, is..." the faunus gulped, unable to get the words out.

"No. Way." Yang planted her fists on her hips, narrowing her eyes. "If he had one of those things in him, we would've been able to tell by now. They're evil, remember?"

"Everything the host knows, remember? We'd never be able to tell just from looking at him." Blake shot back. Right then she blinked, the color draining from her features. "Which, means... they could all...

The blonde grabbed her shoulders, briefly yet violently shaking the smaller girl, despite her quick struggle to push her off. With her point made she let go, breathing deeply while she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.

"No a chance, okay? It's Ren, not some parasite controlling him." Yang said forcefully.

"That's right."

Whipping around, Yang and Blake jerked back from the speaker, who stood a body's length away with her arms crossed, watching them.

"I mean, a body controlling parasite? Silly." Nora said, offering a relaxed shrug. A smile was on her face, but it wasn't her usual bubbly grin; instead it was thin and cold, showing none of her usual bubbly cheerfulness.

"How long have you..." Yang trailed off, unwittingly forcing her arms down.

"Long enough." Nora replied, her tone neutral. She was almost still, watching the two with eerie calm.

Blake gulped. "Nora, Ren has..."

"A scar on the back of his neck?" she guessed, stopping her mid sentence. "You saw it. Did he show you, or did you catch a peek?"

The teammates exchanged a fear tinged look. Nora was calmer than either of them had ever seen before, an unnerving experience to behold.

"Thought so." she dropped her arms, the smile flickering. "Say it."

"Say..." Yang tried, gulping.

Nora's brow creased. "You want me to do it? Fine. Ren was taken as a Goa'uld host."

Blake's mouth opened, but no words came out. Yang gaped, unable to believe her ears. All the while, the orange haired girl's tone didn't waver, and her thin smile failed to reach her eyes.

" _Was_ taken. He's fine now." Nora continued, closing her eyes to tip her head back. "You know what's funny?"

"What?" Yang asked nervously, a brief check on Blake showing her to be in no better condition.

Nora opened her eyes to affix a cold look upon them. "Its safe to say Beacon was your whole world back then, or at least the most important part of it. And eight months ago, it was nearly destroyed." a mirthless chuckle escaped her. "Funny thing, your world went up in flames almost at the same time as mine."

Shocked by the revelation, Blake and Yang were locked in place, an audience to Nora sharing her tale.


	25. Looking Back to the Good Old Days

_Stargate Command, eight months earlier..._

" _All personnel, evacuate to secure levels. A compromised SG team is within the base. Repeat, a compromised team is loose._ " blared General Hammond's voice over every loudspeaker, the old commander's tone carrying noticeable strain. Despite the obvious dismay and the faint yet recognizable sounds of gunfire in the background, he kept calm enough to give out orders. To nearly everyone in Stargate Command, the speaker cutting out was cause to worry.

But for one Nora Valkyrie, she was feeling all around great.

All except for the waiting part, she always hated waiting. It was boring, and she didn't like being bored. But she'd been doing her job long enough to know waiting and boredom were part of the routine, just something to put up with as best as she could. By this point, all the orange haired girl could do was tough it out and wait for some action. Like now. Now had the potential to be a fun time, like what she sorely missed from the old days.

The upper level armory door was wide open, the two clerks inside handing out Intar modified MP5s, M9s, and Zats to the growing number of anxious troops outside. They moved with speedy efficiency, although their fear was impossible to hide. As was the case for most of the men and women present in truth. Once armed they were massed before a thick blast door, half a meter of heavy steel between them and the next level.

"Sir, do we know what team is compromised?" asked one of Nora's work-teammates, gingerly accepting an MP5 from their commander. His hands shook a little while he pawed over the weapon.

"Negative." Captain Doug Austin, a sour faced man from a place called Florida, responded as he gave the soldier a Zat. Next on the short row was Nora, tapping her foot while she grinned, the sight of which caused him to take a breath. "That's why we're heading in with stun weapons, _reduced collateral_." he emphasized, fighting a scowl.

Nora shrugged with a wink, even as he roughly shoved the tiny weapon into her arms. She wasn't bothered though, going over the gun out of habit while risking a peek at Austin's hat covered head. For some reason, he was going prematurely grey. Nora did genuinely want to help him chill out, fearing he'd have a heart attack at a young age. Relatively speaking anyway; by her standards late thirties were old.

A nudge on her arm made her look over, a wide grin on her face. "Hey guys."

Beside her Jaune stood, flashing a weak smile before he frowned with worry. "Hey, have you heard which team came back?"

"No clue. Do you know?" Nora replied, leaning forward to smile at Pyrrha behind him.

"I'm not sure either." the redhead answered in concern. "I heard somebody say it was SG-3, another said SG-13, and someone else claimed it was the Russian team. Everyone's saying they're Goa'uld though."

"We'll figure it out." Nora shrugged cheerfully.

Around the trio of friends soldiers moved into a makeshift formation, the three SG teams checking their weapons over one more time. Everyone present had the usual green outfits and equipment vests of their jobs, although one group weren't looking as spiffy as the rest, due to returning from a mission barely twenty minutes ago. The orange haired girl was part of the returnees actually, but she didn't act like it.

Upon seeing the defaulted leader of the whole gang step into view, the three regretfully had to split, Nora giving her friends a tiny wave before coming to attention. Rolling her shoulders, she moved the MP5's strap to a more comfortable spot, a little afraid she would break it by accident. She chuckled at remembering her friends reactions to the guns, how all of them except for Ren had cracked up at the toy like weapons. They stopped laughing after being shot by stun bullets.

"Alright, listen up!" barked Jaune's jerk of a leader, Smith. The Major paced in front of the gathered crowd, his MP5 pointed at the ceiling while his hard gaze roamed over them. "There is a foothold crisis in progress. We're not sure what the situation is down below. Contact with the control center and the gate room has been lost, we have no idea which of our personnel are compromised or not, and casualties are an unknown. General Hammond's status is likewise unknown. SG-1 is currently locked inside the control room. "

Murmurs rippled throughout the small crowd. Nora wasn't one of them though; the bubbly girl was a little impatient, but she knew this stuff was important. Austin would yell at her if she accidentally blew something up again, so she had to pay attention.

"We're going to change that. Everything above this level is locked down, and all secondary exists have been sealed. SG-5 and SG-2 are moving in from the other end of this level, we're gonna meet them in the middle. Failing that, elements of Ranger Company Charlie are moving into the upper floors, if we screw up they'll sweep the entire base." Smith went on, stopping to point a finger. "Captain Carolina, your teams coming with mine down corridor B. Captain Austin, you're heading to corridor C."

"Yes sir." the two captains replied, almost in unison.

Smith nodded, leveling one more look upon the soldiers. "Assume all SG personnel you encounter in there are compromised. However, these are still our people. Shoot to stun, doesn't matter if they're trying to kill you or not. Secure everyone your find, watch your corners, and keep an eye on each other at all times. By the book ladies and gentlemen, now move out."

With a groan the hydraulics pried the thick door apart, Smith turning to face the abandoned corridor. Once it was fully open, he raised his weapon to aim while sweeping a hand forward, leading the way for the fifteen strong group. They poured through the open entrance, beginning the slow process to clear the SGC of any unwanted visitors.

Nora saw her friends leave with their respective teams, neither of them giving so much as a look back. Sighing to herself, the orange haired girl shook her head and powered in after Austin, her group splitting from the rest to head down a cramped and empty corridor. Down the tiny space they moved, cautiously sweeping heads and guns around for any strays. Flashing lights stung at her sight, but luckily the alarms from earlier were silent. Those blaring things always hurt her ears, so them being off was a welcome relief.

She searched long and hard for any snakified people, but despite her attentive looking he saw only her work-teammates. A frown crossed her as she swept the MP5 around, briefly playing with the red light on the bottom of the magazine. She made sure to avoid pointing it at anyone however, even though she knew the red bullets it shot only hurt (hurt a lot actually, as she found out during training). Now wasn't the time to get chewed out for 'being irresponsible.'

When Austin halted with a raised fist, Nora too stopped along with the others, a frown crossing her. Checking around, she saw the T shaped intersection, the grey walls covered in pipes, wires, and several kinds of strung up lights. She never liked tromping around this place at night, the walls always seemed to press down on her. None of her friends liked it either. Shaking her head again, she tried listening for whatever spooked Austin.

After a couple seconds she heard it; footsteps, moving fast and quick like the person was running, heading closer to them. Her captain took a breath and looked over his shoulder, laying an unhappy look on the girl.

"Valkyrie, take point." he softly ordered, a twitch flickering across his face at the order.

Nora flashed a grin and toed around him, finally raising the toy-like gun. If there were two things she knew he liked about her, it was her toughness and utter lack of fear. And if going first meant she could get her blood pumping in a _real_ fight, then why complain? Checking on Austin one more time, Nora saw her cue: a resigned nod.

Dashing out from the corner, Nora bolted down the hallway at a breakneck pace. She saw her target: an SG team member clutching an M16, whipping around with a snarl. A flash from his eyes was her sign to act, if a loud curse in a language she didn't speak wasn't enough.

Heading right towards her victim, she jerked her weapon to the side, allowing her to curl up a fist. The girl smirked when he brought the rifle up to spray gunfire, jolting backwards from the charging madwoman in an attempt to flee. She felt a couple bullets bounce off her to ricochet into the walls; the heavier rounds actually did a number on her Aura, but she didn't show it. The few shots weren't even close to enough to stop her anyway. His rifle clicked empty just as she reached him, making her smirk grow.

At the last second Nora kicked off the ground. Her fist was flung out to deliver a punch right at his midsection, hitting him dead center and blowing the poor guy right off his feet. Normally Earth people were too squishy for her to go all out on, but since he had a Goa'uld in him, she could let loose a little. In this case, that meant punching her victim hard enough to fling him back a good ten meters, bouncing once before rolling into a wall.

Grinning, Nora almost skipped to the face down man with his back to her, bringing the MP5 around when she heard a weak groan. A twitch of movement was rewarded by a couple red fireflies from the modded gun, the pain meter set to max of course. On a level she pitied this guy, since those things hurt.

"Hey bud, sorry 'bout that." Nora said cheerfully to the unconscious man. Bending over, she grabbed his shoulder to shake, finding out he was definitely out cold but alive. A definite plus. She always felt bad after killing somebody, didn't matter who or what they were.

The rest of her work-team were moving down the hall to regroup, hopefully with something to tie the guy up. From several meters away she heard Austin sigh. "Good work Valkyrie."

Nodding, she was struck by a thought. "Let's see, now who are you?" she went curiously, rolling him over. "I wanna know so I can tell the real you I'm sorry later. Its nothing per-"

Nora stopped. Her smile vanished. Her cheer evaporated. In a split second, the optimistic and outgoing girl of SG-15 was gone. In the void came a wash of an emotion she rarely felt, one she did her best to ignore or bury. The stuff of her nightmares was in front of her eyes, brought to life and staring her in the face.

 _No, no, no._

She knew this man: his name was Gerald 'Gerry' Irons, a nice guy she chatted with a lot. Hailing from a fantastic sounding place called Chicago, or the Windy City as he referred to it, he was a guy who liked cream soda and horror films, on several occasions recently he offered to throw a big movie night for the enlisted personnel, like her and her friends. On a mission once, she plucked a giant bug off his back before he realized it was there, and they made an agreement to never tell anyone about it. While not part of her team, she knew him and his four teammates pretty well, due to hanging out with them as much as she could get away with. She liked his boss more than her own and wanted to swap, but she didn't have a say in those kind of things. Gerry was part of SG-14.

So was Ren.

"Roger, tango down." went Austin's voice into a radio, clearly relieved. "We'll secure the tango before we link up. Alright, Valkyrie, is the target- _Valkyrie!_ " he suddenly shouted.

Nora wasn't listening, sprinting down the halls as fast as she could go. Without a second thought she left her work-team behind, silently cursing at the narrow space for not letting her run any faster. All of her thoughts had narrowed to one point, a truth she desperately wished it wasn't real. Under her breath, the terror stricken girl kept mumbling one word over and over, a hollow mantra to deny what her eyes told her.

" _No, no, no._ "

She blew past another team, not registering the panicked gunfire which followed her passing. It wasn't important if they were friends or enemies, only one thing was on her mind. This singular focus accidentally led her to another snakified soldier, who took one flashing eyed look at the girl and wisely tried to flee. Mid sprint Nora swept his legs out and punched at his midsection, running away before she could make sure he was out cold. It didn't matter. All that did was finding him.

Hearing more gunfire, she switched directions towards the source, frustrated terror filling her mind at the lack of an answer. As she listened the guns were falling silent one by one, accompanied by all too brief cries. Redoubling her efforts, she tried her absolute best to reach the position before it was too late. Despite her speed, the shots vanished just as she passed a corner, finally getting her to slow down.

Breathing rapidly, she forgot everything the Earth people taught her as she jogged to the apparent battle, gulping in fear. Slowing to a careful walk, she heard the sounds of a fist fight in progress. One with a lot of yelping men being beaten to a pulp.

"Stop! No!" shouted a voice just out of her sight, making Nora's blood freeze. A heartbeat later a body flew from out of her sight to smack against a wall, the blonde hair making her breath catch. Jaune slumped limply, clearly unconscious as he collapsed to the floor.

Training from two worlds told the girl to help her friend. Instincts made her continue walking, tearing her eyes off him as she entered the small hallway.

Nora's wide eyes drank in the sight. The remains of SG-7 were sprawled around the hallway floor, the girl distantly hoping they were still alive. All save for one: Major Smith was grappling with a hand at his throat, red faced and gasping. He was trying to fight the arm lifting him up, snarling for breath and furiously punching the limb with all his strength, over and over again. A fist hit him between the eyes, sending him to the floor with the rest of his men, completely limp. The perpetrator was still for a moment, facing away from her while he briefly shook his hand.

Unable to help herself, Nora blurted out, "Ren!"

The figure paused. She could see he was clad in the usual green uniform and vest most troops around here wore, but he could be wearing a clown suit and she'd still recognize him. Standing up straight, he brought up a hand to crack his neck, his barely allowed hair length ruffling with the simple act. Rolling his shoulders, he turned around to face the orange haired girl.

"Ren?" Nora half whimpered, a tiny part of her hating how weak she sounded.

Stepping in place, Lie Ren made eye contact with her, his expression blank. For a moment he did nothing, his purple eyes roaming over her quivering appearance. Until a smile crossed his features.

"I've been looking for you."

His voice was unchanged, but Nora immediately saw the truth, the nightmarish reality now revealed before her eyes. Her oldest friend's tone was wrong, sweet yet filled with arrogance, carrying none of his usual soft assurance. His posture was stiff, not relaxed in the slightest. The smile was cold and dangerous, like he was sizing up a victim. Above all, the look in his eyes made the girl shiver. Never before had she see this kind of coldness in her closest friend. Never did she imagine it was even possible.

"Don't worry about a thing." the _thing_ controlling Ren told her, smiling as he took a Zat from his holster. "It'll all be okay, **Nora**."

The deep double voice kept the sickly coldness from before, the comfort of a monster. Raising the weapon at her, he tilted his head back to smirk, his eyes briefly flashing gold.

Nora screamed. She didn't think, she didn't plan. All the girl did was charge at her best friend, tanking the Zat shot and barely slowing down. With wide eyes he tried to dodge out of her way, but her sheer speed was too much. Crashing into him, she grappled him as tight as she could and proceeded to carry them away, the weapon tumbling away out of their reach.

Her scream was abruptly cut off when he jabbed a hand on her back, a pulse of focused Aura staggering her. Nevertheless her momentum slammed them into a wall, hitting hard enough to shatter the thick concrete. Whipping back to throw a punch, he jabbed another Aura burst into her stomach, making Nora gasp in pain as she unwillingly recoiled. Although she was stunned for a second, he promptly followed up with a hook to her jaw.

No sooner was she pushed back did he grab her shoulders, grunting as he almost picked her up to fling aside. The orange haired girl hit the wall hard, crumpling a set of pipes behind her, and grimacing at the blow to her head. Yet she wasn't so hurt to lose awareness, jerking her head away from a punch which dented the space she occupied a second ago. A heartbeat after that he grabbed her again, this time to force her head down, to meet his brought up knee. Pain exploded from her face, though luckily he missed hitting her eyes, and the blow didn't hurt enough to daze her completely.

Tasting blood, Nora shoved it all aside to throw another punch, trying to forget who she was up against. The first blow was narrowly dodged, the young man whirling around with little of his usual grace. A second followed just as fast, but was met by the same result, shattering more concrete but getting her hand stuck. He quickly began to jab her trapped body, the girl's Aura barely able to take the infused strikes. Each one felt like she was being stabbed. He finished with an uppercut which flung her head away, and allowing him to focus more Aura into his hand.

Right as he lashed out, Nora hugged the wall as tight as she could, feeling the raw power crackle against her own Aura. Ignoring the taste of copper in her mouth, she broke free of the wall to catch the side of his face, almost knocking him out right there. It wasn't enough to stop him, but the attack did stagger her friend, dizzy from the blow to his head. A cry escaped her when she tried one more punch, hitting the face she cared for so much. Again he was pushed back, footing unstable as he wove in place. Tears threatened to sting at her vision, but she forced them back.

 _Not now_ , Nora thought desperately, attempting to shove the emotions aside and do what she needed to do. But no matter how much she tried, it couldn't be done.

Her next fist was slower, shaking, the will behind it about to break. This one he was able to catch in his own hand, the boosted strength letting him come close to matching her for the first time. The two of them were heaving for breath, slowly recovering. The fingers tightened, locking her in place. Swallowing a growing lump, Nora used her other fist to hit him, only for it too to be caught.

Locked hand in hand, he finally raised his head, the hair strewn in his face failing to hide the bared teeth of a scowl. Seeing her shrinking back made the vicious look on his face morph into a cruel smile, the monster behind him likely thinking it was about to win. Another taunting flash came from his eyes. " **You'll make a fine host-** "

Then his expression flickered. For the briefest second, his entire face began to twitch, the glint in his eyes shifting. The grips relaxed a faint degree, enough for her to twist them down. As Nora stared into his gaze, Ren slowly fought back, losing ground just as fast as he claimed it. Panting and struggling within, he said nothing to her, but he didn't need to. For three seconds he silently pleaded with her to act, to stop him while he was still vulnerable.

A double crackle sounded out, followed immediately by a wash of electricity briefly enveloping Ren, which vanished as quickly as it arrived. He jerked once then fell, his body collapsing into a pile on the floor. Just like that, he was gone again.

Nora watched the short display with horror, unable to help herself from falling to her knees beside him. Heaving for breath as she grabbed a fistful of his torso, she ignored the couple figures surrounding her, while others darted to the defeated team. Not even a hand roughly landing her shoulder caught her attention, until it snatched her chin to jerk her over.

At any other time, seeing Austin red faced and utterly furious would've given her pause. But not now. She met his anger with a hollow look, which only seemed to rile him further.

"Damnit Valkyrie, what were you _thinking_!? What in the ever loving fu..." Austin made the mistake of looking at the fallen man, and immediately he blinked. His snarl was broken, along with the redness his cheeks. Glancing back, he saw her gaze had drifted back to Ren, breaking the hard taught rules without even noticing. He swallowed a lump.

"Valkyrie. Valkyrie." he said authoritatively, shaking the girl's shoulder. " _Nora!_ "

The bark finally made her snap her head over, but her look didn't fade. Austin sighed, briefly squeezing his eyes shut.

"Listen to me. We're gonna make him better, okay? I need you to keep it together for a few more minutes, okay?" he said softly, gripping her shoulder. "We're gonna save him. I promise."

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Nora took in a breath and nodded. Of course he knew; she told her work-team about herself so many times, wanting them to have a similar bond as her own friends.

Glancing up, Austin looked to his subordinate coming up to them. "What is it?"

"Sir, the last two tangoes have been neutralized. We have a confirmed five KIA, possibly more." he reported, eyes roaming over the trio but keeping from commenting.

"General Hammond? SG-1?" Austin questioned, nodding when another man showed up with a couple sets of thick handcuffs. These were bulky things, built to keep Goa'uld infested people nice and restrained.

"Alive and well sir." he reported with audible relief.

Nora was barely paying attention, her eyes locked on Ren's unconscious form. He looked alright to her, like he just got tired and passed out, something that happened many times over their lives. But she couldn't delude herself.

The moment he stirred two men were upon him, cuffing his arms and legs together and hauling him up. Barely listening to Austin, she grabbed him to drag, an easy task in spite of exhaustion settling over her body. After that was a blur, time losing all meaning as she shuffled him along, step by step. She saw the life flow back into him, but it wasn't the real Ren which came back.

Blinking, she suddenly realized she was in gateroom, and the Stargate was activating just a few meters away. A shiver crawled up her spine when the powerful whoosh buffeting the pair. There were probably more people around her, Austin at the least. Her boss whispered one more command to her before she started walking. "Don't let go of him."

Nora didn't need to be told that, but she nodded anyway, dragging Ren up the ramp and through the gate. There was the usual...

 _...sensation..._

...before they were spat out the other side, into a bright and clear day. It was then Nora finally asked herself where they just gated to, the spike of worry breaking her numbness at long last. Ren's frightened gasp was her cue to look, peering at the artfully carved obelisk a few meters away.

Thor's Hammer flashed a white light over the two of them, the prickling sensation on her skin increasing as it settled on the sable haired young man. It grew more intense when the light turned an angry red, like a baleful warning at how badly they screwed up. Just as the light began to actually hurt, there was a powerful flash, ending what felt like a second later.

Nora didn't mean to let go, stumbling while her friend fell face first into the hard dirt. She felt woozy, gripping her head while she swayed. Clenching her teeth, she fought the vertigo back and righted herself, needing a second to relocate Ren. He was breathing deeply, obviously conscious and aware. And if he knew where they were (and she had no reason to think he didn't), then the thing inside him also knew it was a goner.

But he didn't try getting up, making her sigh resignedly. Approaching him, she steadied her nerves. She knew this place's layout, having traveled here a couple times in case this situation ever happened. All she had to do was find the exit, push him through the archway, then this crisis would be over. Then it'd be a bad dream, nothing more.

"Alright, it'll be over soon. Just gimme a minute, it'll all be fine." Nora tried talking soothly, like what he did for her whenever she was upset. "I'll make you some pancakes when this is all-"

" **He blames you.** "

The orange haired girl stopped with her hand above his back, confusion overtaking her for a second. "What?"

" **He blames you for their deaths.** " the double voice said simply, turning its stolen head to the side to look at her, grinning coldly. " **Kuroyuri. His parents, his friends, all of them. They're dead because of** _ **you**_ **.** "

For the second time that day Nora was silenced, unable to process her thoughts. She was frozen in place, quivering as she gaped.

"T-that's...not-" she could barely speak, distant memories flashing through her mind.

" **You know its true. You survived your town's destruction, and led the Grimm to his home.** " it gloated in Ren's corrupted voice, the accusation making her recoil.

"That's not true!" she stamped on the ground, her shout trembling with her body.

" **If you had just laid down and died like you should've, his family would still be alive. But you were too much of a coward to accept your fate. No, you had to sacrifice others in your place, because you were so selfish.** " Upon seeing her shame, its grin increased. " **He denies it to himself, but I know him better than he knows himself. You're responsible for all their deaths, and you know it.** "

Just as Nora was about to shout, a powerful numbness settled over her mind, her body going slack so quickly she almost fell. The anger, the shame, the fear, all of it was swept away. In its place was only a detached clarity, like what she experienced only twice in her entire life, both times scaring the girl to her core. Only one thing she knew of could do this. And right now, it was the only thing keeping her from shattering.

With her expression completely empty, Nora half staggered as she bent over, grabbing a fistful of Ren's to pull him off the ground. He didn't help her in any way; first by going fully limp, then by thrashing in her hold, letting his feet drag as she carried him. All the while, the double voice rambled.

It told her things while she walked, a babbling stream like what she always did, while she was silent in comparison. The irony wasn't lost on her. It told her about things she thought of sometimes, in the middle of the night, when she was in her quarters or in the infirmary, any place she could be fully alone with her thoughts. Secrets of his she never tried prying into were freely spewed, stuff like what he thought of her. His sheer vulgarity would've left her red faced with embarrassment before, but now she was only calmly blank, his words failing to affect her.

The closer they got to the labyrinth's exit, the faster he talked, and the more shrill his voice became. When it entered her sight Ren was almost yelling, even switching off the Goa'uld voice to plead with her. But the cold grip on her feelings didn't vanish, so his words meant nothing. A part of her wondered why it was working; did it not control Ren's semblance? Could it be using the power to try to affect her? Or was he fighting back in the only way he could? She didn't know.

He fell silent at last when she reached the small archway, putting an extra strong grip on him in case he tried something, or if the creature tried to flee the host. Despite the hollowness Nora couldn't resist one more look at Ren's face, a few centimeters from her own. She glanced at him, and he glanced at her. Wide eyes. Short of breath. Twitching expression. _Fear_. Of her, there was only that emptiness she avoided whenever possible.

Nora thought she would say something in a situation like this, some witty one liner or quip suited to the circumstances. She enjoyed action movies for this very reason, no matter how goofy or corny the lines were. Long had she imagined a moment like this, face to face with an evil Goa'uld at her mercy, and she would drop some memorable line before finishing it off. But she was silent.

A quick shove was all Nora did, pushing Ren into the archway.

He screamed. The boy she traveled with and fought alongside for most of her life screamed, and she did nothing. Meanwhile a red glowing field came to life with him in its grasp, humming dangerously as the old technology within detected, then destroyed the Goa'uld parasite inside him. Ren writhed in place while his voice switched between types, flailing yet staying upright. All while she watched from the outside, his semblance's effects gone.

Ten seconds of Ren screaming was what she witnessed, before the red field suddenly cut out. He went quiet at the same time, standing in a dazed trance for a second before he fell over.

Nora took the few steps closer to Ren, seeing his shallow breathing yet feeling no satisfaction. She was utterly numb, only just beginning to grasp that her worst nightmare had came and went. She ignored everything else and just focused on him, knowing he was okay. Indistinct figures appeared to surround him, turning him onto his back and checking him over, then picking him up to plant on a stretcher. One of the figures detached from the group to approach her, but Nora wasn't hearing them. She closed her eyes and let the darkness claim her.

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"Woke up in the infirmary a couple days later. Doctor Fraiser said I had a concussion, and I needed to sleep it off. Took Ren a couple more days to wake up, and another month before he could return to duty." Nora finished, crossing her arms. "Found out a couple weeks later SG-14 were captured by a System Lord named Baal. He infested the team and sent them back to assassinate either SG-1 or General Hammond. The SGC sent a nuke to one of his outposts for it."

Blake and Yang were dumbstruck, listening to her tale with undisguised terror. The entire time she spoke, Nora's tone never lost that faintly amused, faintly bitter aspect. Her smile was a tiny one, lacking any mirth.

At last Yang took a breath, her face wrinkled. "Why didn't you guys tell us about this?"

"Why didn't you tell us about your hand?" Nora replied, watching her flinch. "Yeah, I know what happened, read up on the news. You tried fighting Adam Taurus, and you screwed up. Lost a couple fingers and got stabbed in the gut for your trouble." she gestured, this time getting both to wince. "So why didn't _you_ say anything?"

Yang grimaced, averting her eyes. Sighing, Blake cleared her throat. "You had to know we'd discover this eventually."

"Yep. He and I hoped it'd be years from now, instead of you finding out behind his back." Nora said with an insincere smirk, the attempted pun failing badly. "So, are you gonna go blabber to everyone about Ren being snaked?"

"No." Blake said, sending a glance at Yang when she opened her mouth. "We're not. I understand why, you can trust us with this secret."

"Y-yeah." the blonde reluctantly agreed, idly clenching her fist to hide it.

Nodding to herself, Nora shifted her weight to the other foot. "That's good. Don't wanna tell Ren this though, he won't take it well."

With that the orange haired girl turned to stride away, without so much as a bye. The two girls watched her leave for a second, still processing the story she gave them.

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The unofficial headquarters of Team RWBY was unusually silent this time. Unless it was late at night or no one was home, there was always a voice in the room going on about something. But minutes after Yang and Blake returned to Ruby and Weiss, no one had spoken yet. They had all sat down on the beds to glance at each other, each girl sporting a pensive look.

Finally Ruby sighed. "What happened?"

"Well..." Yang trailed off, glancing out the window to the cloudy sky. "How do I put this..." she gave up and peered at her friend hopefully, who hung her head and let out a pained sigh.

"Turns out Ren was infested by a Goa'uld eight months ago. The planet we went to, Cimmeria? That obelisk thing is part of a system to remove the parasite from people, it's why Jaune said the planet was safe. Thanks to that, it's probably one of the safest planets in the galaxy. The thing took it out of him around the same time as the Battle of Beacon." Blake explained, lifting her head to peer dejectedly at the twin stares.

After exchanging a wide look with her friend, Ruby took a breath. Weiss saw her silent plea, and reluctantly nodded.

"You guys?" Yang asked, missing her usual cheer. The white haired girl sat up, squeezing her eyes shut for a second.

"Well, turns out Jaune and Pyrrha have been dating for six months, and they've been trying to keep it on the down low. Its apparently a crime to date your subordinate, and Jaune's trying to become an officer so they can be a team again. And yes." Weiss raised a hand to stop an interruption. "We asked. Pyrrha wants to stick with Stargate Command, so they can't be open on Earth."

"Yeah, pretty much." Ruby added, her tone lackluster. A disappointed expression was on her face, temporarily beating the shocked look from a minute ago.

"Oh." Yang blinked. "That's... Yeah. I kinda figured there was something going on, they had that vibe to 'em. Um, congrats I guess?" she tried, shrugging fruitlessly.

"I was expecting worse." Blake commented, mulling on the idea.

"Yeah. So, Ren was, you know." the red huntress gestured in front of her, but none of them could make sense of her arms random flailing. She didn't appear to know what she was trying either, and after a second she let the limbs fall to her lap.

"Yeah, but he got better. We, uh, found out by accident." Blake said quickly, exchanging a look with Yang, who nodded very fast.

Weiss sighed. "Anyone else wish things weren't this complicated?"

"Yeah." Yang agreed, nodding slowly. "Makes me kinda wish we were with them back then, could've found the gate together. Avoided all this." she swept a hand around, but all of them knew what she meant. "If it were in the emerald forest, during initiation..."

"Its too late for that." Blake said, leaning back to stare at the bed strung up above her head.

Silence descended over the room once again, none of the girls knowing what to say next. Ruby brought her hands together to intertwine her fingers, glancing out the window like her sister with a thoughtful expression. The overcast sky had no answers, offering only the promise of rain in the near future.

Idly, she wondered how things were going up there, on the alien spaceship blissfully floating in the night sky. Ruby was sure they were having an easier time than her friends.

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 **A/N: so yeah, this happened. Hopefully this flashback centric chapter answered a few of your questions. And it's not eleven thousand words long this time, so hurray.**

 **Review if you want to. Have a good day if you decide not to, its that time of year.**


	26. The Tomb

**A/N: Serious question guys, what would happen if I asked for fanart? I have a decent guess, and it's expressed by an old meme.**

 **"Ahahahaha! Oh wait, you're serious. Let me laugh even harder. AHAHAHAHA!"**

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One moment there was nothing, the next a flash of light materialized nine human beings in an open space, arranged as a rough circle. A second after reforming the heavily loaded men (and a lone woman) snapped their weapons up, cautiously scanning over their new surroundings. Each one breathed in the dusty stale air, while yellowish lights beat down on their heads; without meaning to, all of them began to tense up at the disquieting atmosphere. A couple members briefly flexed, discovering the gravity to be slightly weaker than what they were accustomed to.

Within a moment the combined group had settled their attentions upon the living persons already present, the sight of which caused them to lower their weapons. The uneasy feelings weren't so easy to banish however.

"Colonel, Sir." Reynolds said to the man walking up to now attentive group. He kept his M4 held low, idly shrugging to adjust the heavy duffel slung around his back.

"Hiya Reynolds." O'Neill greeted when he stopped, grimacing as he straightened out the wrinkled green outfit. With a lackluster flourish he waved to their surroundings. "Okay people, here we are."

'Here' was a sizable room, shaped like an upside down bowl with the center of the ceiling hosting a powerful yellow light. Several arches rose from the floor to support the light, not unlike raised arms offering a tribute. The dust coated floor was smooth, although several small pedestals topped by glossy surfaces were strewn around in a hexagon, each one within sight of an unadorned throne. The impression was one of watchfulness, so whoever sat on the glorified chair could see what anyone was doing at any time. While the room was colored gold and black in the preferred Goa'uld aesthetic, the customary shine was pointedly absent.

"It's something." Reynolds muttered to himself.

"That it is. Alright." O'Neill said loudly, causing the nine in front of him to straighten up. "Reynolds, Wash, you two come with me. The rest of you fan out, secure this room." he began to turn, but paused when he remembered. "Commander, you come too."

While SG-3 and SG-9 parted to scour the room, Reynolds followed the Colonel in an easygoing pace, sparing a look towards Washington. His grossly overworked counterpart didn't appear as downcast today, though he was still far from happy. The Major's own weapon, a new UMP, sagged on the loose strap, and his steps were far less controlled than the Marine's. Reynolds didn't comment however; while he spent the past week relaxing, this man was busy haggling with an alien government over a trade deal. There wasn't much he wouldn't do to avoid that man's job.

On his part Washington finally took note of the foreign national coming up to his side, and he glanced her way. The woman's blue and white regalia was startlingly different compared to the rest of troops, looking more like a dress uniform out of some nineteenth century painting than an actual battle ready outfit. Her white hair bun didn't help the impression, and neither did the rapier hanging from her hip.

Winter curtly noticed his starting. "Yes Major?"

"Commander." Washington said carefully. His eyes were on the M9 she had pointed at the ground, finger outside of the trigger guard. "Do you know how to use that?"

"Its a pistol." was her answer, dryly staring at him.

"I know, that's why I asked." he replied in the same way.

"Its a _pistol_ , Major, not a Guisarme class dreadnought." she continued, her frown unwavering.

Washington looked away and sighed, giving up without a fight. Apparently satisfied, Winter returned her gaze forward, just stopping herself from bumping into a stopped Reynolds. Fortunately for her dignity none of the men appeared to care.

A gesture had Reynolds sling the heavy bag around to plop onto a raised platform, bearing a resemblance to a Hatak control panel. Here was where the rest of SG-1 were located; Carter and Daniel were bent over a small display, only looking up when the bag landed. The creased looks both had morphed into quiet surprise. Behind the duo stood Teal'c, ramrod straight while the staff rested on his shoulder. He and O'Neill briefly met gazes, an almost imperceptible nod passing between the men.

"Alright, fill 'em in." the Colonel said, unzipping the duffel to pull out a P90. He began to take out vests and weapons, sparing a glance to the pile of discarded spacesuits they set beside their current roost.

"Sirs, good news is this room is a secondary control center." Carter told them, taking a vest. "So far, I have an internal map of the facility, air filters are working on all levels, and the power grid is functional, though there seems to be a few degraded sections. For all intents, this base is fully operational."

Washington frowned, massaging the grips of his weapon. "Major, this isn't the main control room?"

"Correct Major, I'm aware of how unusual this is. Now, it looks like the system access this room has is limited. As far as we can tell, it primarily controls this level, specifically environmental systems and internal security. No access to comms." she reported glumly, taking a blocky contraption from O'Neill. A jerk of her hand unfolded the weapon, turning it into a compacted version of Reynolds' M4.

"Sirs, ma'am." went a respectful voice, getting the men to glance over.

"Yes?" O'Neill asked dryly, handing off a pistol and vest to Daniel, along with a thick notebook.

"How is a secondary control node unusual?" asked Winter, cautious yet firm under their gazes.

"Goa'uld are power hungry and paranoid as a rule ma'am. They don't like sharing control if they can help it." Reynolds offered, turning with a blank expression. The woman frowned in quiet consternation, but she recognized the hint and nodded respectfully.

"That's not the only problem." Daniel said, peering up from his open notebook with his brow creased. "Turns out this place is a lot older than we thought. My guess is the base has been abandoned for at least two thousand years."

"How do you know?" Reynolds questioned, glancing when O'Neill grunted.

The archeologist pointed at the display. "The script. Its Goa'uld, but a lesser known dialect."

"Indeed, it is one that has not been in common use for several millennia. I am having some difficulty reading it." Teal'c added, his flat gaze showing a hint of concern as he took his vest.

"I'm having a little easier time, since I've seen it before. This is the first living Goa'uld dialect I learned." the bespectacled man sucked in a breath of the lifeless air. "On Abyedos."

O'Neill's huff caught the trio's attentions, making two of them raise their eyebrows. Reynolds didn't, he knew the whole story already. Washington was puzzled at the lackluster way he dug inside for the last item within, a green colored baseball cap. All the while Winter pursed her lips, wondering first what an Abeydos was, then why he seemed to put so much care onto a simple hat. Upon glancing over the rest of the team, she suddenly wondered why the rest of SG-1 were briefly struck by frowns.

"Carter, the map?" he said simply, puffing the top out before putting it on, adjusting it to a comfortable spot.

"Right, sir. As far as I can tell, the facility is divided into three main sections. The area we're in appears to be storage and living quarters, the section below is most likely the reactor, and there appears to be a third portion. I'm not sure what it is however. If we're going to stop the transmitter, I could either tear apart our section, which could take days, or..." the blonde purposely trailed off.

"Or disable the power." Daniel stepped in, glancing over his shoulder at the faintly creased brow on Teal'c.

"Sounds obvious to me." he turned to the group, his actions catching the eyes of everyone in the space. Without prompting the two teams returned to them at a brisk pace. "Wash, how good are your boys at figuring out Goa'uld tech?"

"Reasonably good." was the Major's reply, twisting around to wave on the three Airmen of his team. A pointed finger and a gesture had one man jog over, heading to the duo's terminal.

"Alright, you guys are gonna stay here, figure out as much as this system as you can." O'Neill commanded, noting the nearly invisible sigh from the entire diplomatic team.

Daniel cleared his throat. "I should stay with them, help translate. This isn't the usual script the language courses teach."

"Good idea. Carter, you and Teal'c head to the reactor to shut this thing down. I want you to take a couple escorts just in case." he went on, peering to his counterpart.

Reynolds nodded, turning to a pair of attentive Marines to jab a thumb over his shoulder. "Barnes, Cho, you're up."

A pair of "Yes Sirs." left the men as they half jogged to the Major, who picked up at their presence. Teal'c offered a simple nod to the men, who did the same with some nervousness. Nevertheless they spaced out to surround them, moving their weapons to a ready position.

"Reynolds, you and me are gonna scour this place. We'll check for records, notes, whatever's here. You." he pointed to the last Marine, who stiffened.

"Thomas, sir."

"Yeah, you're tagging along too." O'Neill began to spin towards the door, but stopped at the last second. A quietly cleared throat was barely audible in the room. "Commander Winter, you're with us. Watch our backs, don't get lost."

The white haired nodded quickly, her fingers rippling over the borrowed gun. Her expression was wrinkled, but she was purposely smoothing out her features. "Yes sir."

Pointing at Carter first to wave at the door, O'Neill strode to the obvious entrance, while the blonde played with the controls for a moment. When the heavy barrier started to groan in protest, she picked up her weapon to jog away, Teal'c and the Marines quickly matching her speed. Daniel didn't move from his spot, even as the Airman came around to crouch at Carter's former position. He cracked open his notebook once again, but paused to spare a look towards the gathered party, features wrinkling in uncertainty.

The door's movement sounded like gravel churning, not helped by a faint screech of grinding metal. The noise was annoyingly grating, but nothing could be done until it was opened fully. For as irritating as the sound was however, the sight of the dimly lit hallway beyond put fresh tension into every man and woman before the entrance, guns raising to scan the empty space the moment it came into sight. The Remnant native in the group was particularly affected; Winter glanced to the others, but when her gaze landed on Teal'c, he nodded sagely in response. The gesture didn't reassure her much, but every little bit counted.

When the door finally went silent, an uncomfortable silence came over the party. Until O'Neill glanced to the far side of the hall, and audibly groaned.

"You son of a-" he growled, dropping his arms to glower at the wall before them. Turning his head, the colonel's deep scowl met the nervous looks of the Marines, while Teal'c and Carter exchanged looks.

From behind them two men cleared a corner, Daniel with an M9 in hand and a nervous Airman in tow. The bespectacled man looked around for a moment in puzzlement, but a single glance at the opposite side made his arms fall.

"Well, that explains a few things." Daniel muttered, walking to the Colonel's side with his eyes rooted on the symbol etched in at eye level. The group tore their eyes off O'Neill to look as well, but only three understood its significance.

Set in the wall was a large circular emblem, the circumference easily a meter in length. At first glance it appeared to be made of some dark stone, the dulled sheen looking to be obsidian, while gold ringed the edge and the center markings. The symbol etched was of an oval eye, with three lines falling to curve away, resembling tears. Thick and blocky, the design was styled so the eye seemed to be pointing at whoever was looking at it.

O'Neill stared at the wall and snorted. "Even in death, he's still a pain in the neck."

"Ra?" Carter went, raising a brow as she looked over the symbol.

Teal'c nodded solemnly, but the old hostility underneath was unmistakable. "I understand now. No other System Lord kept secrets as Ra did."

"Explains the God of Light then." Daniel murmured. "Of course, this begs the question of who the God of Darkness is."

All their contemplation was interrupted by a cleared throat, causing SG-1 and the Marines to tear their eyes off the symbol, and lay their gazes upon the woman in white. She stood on the periphery of the group, visibly shivering under their attentions.

"Sirs. Who is Ra?" Winter questioned carefully.

"You'll get told later." O'Neill powered to one of the branching halls, although he was still plainly upset. "This doesn't change our mission people. We got a job to do." he stopped to glance over, stabbing a finger in their general direction. "Watch your corners, keep your guard up, and for gods sake don't touch anything. Move out."

A brief chorus of,"Yes Sir." met him in response, and with no more prompting the two groups parted down opposite hallways, leaving Daniel behind for a moment. The bespectacled archeologist gave one more sullen look at the emblem before turning away, heading back into the room with the Airman on his heels.

...

00000

...

A mere twenty minutes later O'Neill found himself wishing he insisted on Qrow coming along. The huntsman may have been an alcoholic (upon reflection he crossed out the maybe), but he was witty, easygoing, and knew when to keep his mouth shut. His willingness to take the Earthling Colonel at his word was a welcome bonus to boot.

All of these qualities Winter lacked.

"Isn't that inefficient?" the Commander pressed on Reynolds, who sighed once again. "Atlas experimented with a system like that decades ago, the sole results of a separate service branch was the promotion of distrust and isolationism. Inter-service rivalry like this caused one of the worst scandals in fifty years."

"Its a tradition we've been doing for two hundred years, it works." he repeated for the tenth time since the topic came up, his shoulders sagging when he saw her huff. The sound echoed off the empty halls, the brown tinted walls stretching on and on before their little group.

Peering over his shoulder, he met Reynolds tired gaze as he sighed, the fellow Colonel trying to keep his M4 up and not slumping. His man, Thomas, was doing the same thing somehow. He wasn't sure how, but he was. O'Neill's own P90 was held at chest level, aimed at the floor before him rather than the seemingly endless halls. It would've been a nasty labyrinth to search through, but several signs marked with Goa'uld sigils kept that from happening, with Daniel's radioed help admittedly. Despite (or rather because of) the emptiness, he couldn't shake the cold feeling crawling up his spine.

"If you folded all your branches together, you wouldn't have to be concerned about this Ranger regiment taking your positions..." when she trailed off, the three men stopped to turn around, their frayed patience replaced by concern. Winter looked down a branched hallway she faced, and raised her M9 like a ward.

Inhaling through his nose, O'Neill raised his P90 as he walked over, swiftly coming around to aim down the space. A moment later he lowered his weapon, frowning while he toed closer to the sight. Just as the Marines joined them, he bent over the body slumping against the wall.

"Jaffa." he said aloud, mainly for the woman's benefit. Nevertheless, he glanced over the armored skeleton with puzzlement.

He leaned in to squint at the dusty bones, noting what looked to be a set of lines on the surface, like they were gouged on. Trailing down, he stared interestedly at the rusted plates over the torso, with the very center nothing but red tinted dust. The further he moved to the side, the more intact the armor was. Curiously, the upper body's plate mail was in better condition than the lower parts, which crumbled at the slightest touch. In the same fashion the thigh mail was in rough shape, while the shins and boots were more intact. A glance at the sides however showed the parts touching the floor were rusted too.

"What happened to him?" Reynolds stopped at his back, frowning at the dusty corpse. The grinning skull didn't offer a reply.

When he stood up, O'Neill finally noticed a faint discoloration on the floor surrounding the body. His hackles raised when he realized what it was.

"This guy got tore open, and he bleed to death right here." he said softly, aware of how the Marines snapped to him. When Winter cleared her throat, he raised his head to look.

"Sir, this looks very much like a Grimm attack. I've seen enough to recognize a mauling." she said tersely, fingers rippling over the gun. She suddenly checked around, listening to the faint ambiance of the air filters.

"How'd one get up here?" Reynolds questioned, frowning worriedly at the woman.

"A sturdy cage and some bait is enough for most common types sir. If they had a space capable Bullhead or this beaming thing you used, they could transport dozens per day if they wished. Academies capture Grimm all the time, its really not difficult." she explained, quickly sparing a look over her shoulder while a free hand crept towards her rapier.

"Ma'am, those Grimm critters. They're not actually running around here, are they?" the younger Marine asked nervously, hugging his weapon tight as he too checked his immediate surroundings.

"The chances are low." was her flat reply.

In a second O'Neill went for his radio, clicking it on. He just beat Reynolds doing the same. Upon noticing the Colonel turned around, subtly raising his M4 to sweep over the abandoned location.

"All groups, check in." he said in a businesslike tone. Outwardly he showed nothing, though his P90's barrel rose several degrees.

The radio crackled with static. " _We've located the reactor core sir, but the doors are sealed shut._ " Carter answered, likewise seemingly calm. " _We've also found two bodies so far, both skeletons. There doesn't appear to be any signs of violence._ "

"Anything on em?" he checked, peering down the corridor's length. He spied a couple side rooms, but it didn't seem to branch off any further.

" _Negative. Teal'c believes they're slaves, but whatever they were, they're long gone. It does look like they tried beating on the door though, I'll find out why they wanted in once I hack it._ "

"Good, but if looks like it's dangerous pull out. If we have to we'll nuke this site." O'Neill paused, knowing how the Marines snapped to him in surprise. Ignoring them, he clicked again. "Daniel, Wash, what about you?"

Again the small device crackled. " _Ah, not much here. Got a little further on this map, I think there's a ring room not too far from where you are. Or maybe its a temple, can't quite tell._ "

"Anything else?" O'Neill turned as he spoke, meeting Winter's gaze with quiet caution. She mouthed 'nothing so far.'

" _Yeah, what looks like a data log. Still digging through it, Anderson here is saying the entries aren't organized at all. Lots of information so far though, like four different requests for additional Jaffa in a years time._ " Daniel's static voice was contemplative, his scholarly side coming to the fore.

"Weird. Alright, keep at it." He clicked the radio off to wave them on, but he managed only a couple paces before it crackled again. Groaning, he clicked it again. "Yes?"

" _Just found something interesting._ " the doctor reported, his voice rising in excitement.

"That would be?" he began, gesturing for the group to start walking anyway. The group of four resumed moving, Reynolds on point with O'Neill behind him. At his back was the other Marine, and Winter trailed the group. Unnoticed by the officers, she was feeling the grip of her sword as she powered along, to the enlisted Marine's growing anxiety

" _Its an earlier entry, about importing new slaves. By the looks of it, Ra demanded a tribute of slaves from all his vassals, meaning the rest of the System Lords. Which is intriguing unto itself, since he very easily could've taken humans from his own-_ "

"Very interesting." he interrupted flatly, glancing to the others. Reynolds halted before an adjacent room, raising his M4 to point at the open entrance. Without a word O'Neill and the Marine joined him, weapons up as they cautiously entered the well lit chamber beyond, Winter a couple paces behind the men.

" _Fine. Anyway, seems the largest shipment came from Nirrti, the text here says they were named Hashshak. Seems like she sent Ra her dregs, but he didn't seem to care._ " Daniel went on.

O'Neill clicked the button. "What'd she call them?"

The four circled the edges of the small chamber, a cone like room with a marked circle in the center of the floor, a lone pedestal sticking up on the outside. Overall the room was bigger than what was typical, but the Colonel mused it was enlarged for greater traffic. A facility of this size would need a lot of outside support.

" _Weak, fodder, trash, so on. Actually, wait. The Goa'uld who wrote this called them that, their actual name was..._ "

As Daniel read, O'Neill stood before the pedestal, glancing at the roof. A thick set of blast door equivalents were on the ceiling, split down the middle instead of the normal iris shape. Checking around, he noted Winter coming up to the center with a curious expression, but a cleared throat caught her attention before she got too close. Motioning the others back, he hit the simplistic icon.

" _Ah, that's it. Taur'lek, roughly means-what was that?_ "

The Colonel met the Marines' eyes and shrugged. He then glanced at the sword armed woman, who raised a brow at him.

"Dunno, what happened?" O'Neill replied.

There was a click, and the next time the radio crackled Washington spoke. " _Unauthorized access. The ring room has a remote security lock?_ "

"Score one for paranoia. Can you turn it on?" he questioned, hitting the icon again to make sure. Nothing happened.

" _Alright, hang on._ " the radio chirped, going silent. O'Neill rested his hands on the P90's stock, sending an expectant look at the ceiling.

Seconds into the waiting game and the radio crackled again. " _As I was saying._ "

"Go on, what's a tar lick?" the Colonel prompted, catching the younger Marine quickly smothering a laugh. The woman sighed to herself, placing the M9 in her holster while tapping her feet.

Again the radio chirped, but this time the speaker was Teal'c. " _Taur'lek. I have heard tales of such creatures. Some claim they are humans forsaken by their gods, cast out the gods domains. Others say they are cursed beings, those who indulged in forbidden magic. Their bodies were warped, becoming monsters and beasts._ "

Winter snapped her head over, just as Daniel's voice came on again. " _Well, the overseer here doesn't have many kind words for these ones anyway. There was a lot of them though, seems like the Taur'lek here made up almost forty five percent of the total tribute. Nirrti gave more slaves than any other one System Lord. The report says they're... oh._ "

O'Neill tracked Winter coming from the corner of his eye, glancing at her when she paused before him. When she held out her hand, he rolled his eyes and gave her the radio. She fiddled with it for a moment before it worked.

"Doctor Jackson, does the report describe these creatures appearance?" she questioned guardedly, peering in the direction they came. The Colonel picked up on her change of tone.

" _Nothing detailed. All it says is the Taur'lek are 'half human, half beast.' And apparently they're not integrating with the rest of the slaves._ " the radio went silent for a moment. " _I'm not the only one thinking faunus, am I?_ "

"I believe so as well. Faunus truly aren't like humans then." Winter said the last part to herself, a thin smile crossing her features. A snap of his fingers made her turn, where a motioning hand awaited. The woman in white returned the device to the Colonel, leaving her free to draw the M9 again.

O'Neill watched the Commander for a moment, letting a small frown crease his brow. He tracked the foreign specialist rolling her shoulders, stealing a glance at the control panel. For a moment he wondered if she knew about the vibe she was putting off now, a strong whiff of something he always disliked. Shaking his head, he pushed aside the ugly feeling to focus on his task.

While the next tap on the panel had the same result as before, the one after that made something click with a high pitched whine, causing all three of his companions to snap to the center.

The radio crackled. " _By the way, unlocked the rings._ "

"Thanks Wash. See what else you can do." O'Neill spoke into the radio, tapping on the panel one more time.

The Marines and Winter all backed away when the floor split, allowing a set of five enormous metal circles to rise into the air. A powerful whine filled the air, as power surged into the old systems a meter away, creating a blinding light from the inside. When the ceiling split apart, the rings shuddered before shooting into the opening, blasting away at high speed. A heartbeat later the clamps whooshed shut, and an ear ringing silence settled over the room.

Reynolds lowered his weapon, taking a deep breath before sending an unhappy look at O'Neill for the surprise. The younger Marine sighed to himself, purposely backing away a few steps, though he didn't do anything rash like try to shoot the platform.

Winter sent him a look that was part anxiety, and part anger. "Sir, what was that?"

"Transporter rings, Goold use em all the time to move stuff. The _Prometheus_ has a set, which hopefully they'll pick up on." O'Neill explained easily, resting a hand on the P90's stock as he sent a relaxed look towards the Commander. "Its perfectly safe, long as you're inside the circle."

A moment later the ceiling split again, coinciding with the powerful whine returning with a vengeance. O'Neill was the only one who didn't react to the otherworldly rings dropping back in; Winter and the Marine outright flinched, while Reynolds grimaced at the display. Meanwhile the Colonel kept the same flat expression as the center flashed with a powerful light, staying calm at the sight. Even if doing so taxed his abilities to the limit. Once the cargo was deposited, panels opened up to take the rings back into hiding, clamping shut right afterwards. The only clue that anything happened was in the middle of the circle. Walking over to crouch, the greying man snagged a small paper to unfold, standing up to face the trio.

"You could've called." he read, glancing up and stuffing the note into a vest pocket. "The sensors can't penetrate this much rock anyway, not like on the planet. We have a way in and out at least."

Reynolds rolled his shoulders, checking over the duo beside him. "We should keep moving. There's a lot of this place yet to explore."

"Yep." O'Neill agreed lowly, his cheer dissipating while he clicked the radio. "Carter, any progress on your end?" When no reply came, a frown crossed him as he tried again. "Carter, respond."

The radio crackled, but it wasn't the blonde who spoke. " _O'Neill, we have entered the reactor._ "

...

00000

...

Teal'c held the radio by his face, grimly keeping a vigil over the expansive room. Thus far he was expressionless, only a faint hint of sympathy crossing him when he glanced to his companions.

Major Carter had barely kept her composure, backing away several paces while her wide eyes took in the sight. She was breathing hard, recovering from the automatic retching a moment ago. One of the Marines had vomited, standing back with a hand clamped over his mouth, while the other was almost shivering as he mumbled a prayer under his breath. The Jaffa alone didn't overtly shrink back, though it took a great deal of effort on his part to stand in place without reacting.

" _What's the problem?_ " O'Neill radioed.

Teal'c rested his staff on the floor, hesitating on his wording. "We have found bodies."

From the door to the panel on the far wall, stretching all over the expansive and dust coated space, were dusty bones. Bones of every variety were strewn about seemingly at random, dusty corpses remaining where they fell an eon ago. Only a few patches of open floor was visible between the two sides, so thick were the dead. Scattered on the walls were faint scorch marks from old staff weapons, while darkened stains were on the floor and walls, unmistakably long gone blood. Here and there were other objects, clothes or weapons which survived the eons relatively intact, still resting by their perished owners.

" _How many you got there?_ " the static filled radio spoke, breaking his concentration.

Teal'c settled his gaze on the closest, noting the rusted form of what was clearly a Jaffa lying on the floor, the hollow spaces of the skull peering into his own eyes from several paces away. Despite all that he had seen and done over the course of his long life, a shiver crawled up his spine at the jagged left side of the bones, how the shattered arm looked like it were chewed on. Resting over the crumpled torso was a staff weapon, the symbol of the Goa'uld looking dented and scratched, while the top was still wide open. Roaming over the closest dead, he began to note the various injuries and shattered bones the dusty corpses had. No one here died painlessly.

"Many." was the answer. The air stank of dust and ancient death, though the only noises were the power core's hums and their breathing. His mind could add the last words of this crowd of fallen all too easily however, and he had to repeatedly stop himself from imagining the noises.

O'Neill was silent for a moment. " _Is Carter right there?_ "

Glancing at the blonde, the Major nodded carefully while she grasped her own radio, though she kept looking back to the charnel house before them. She had to squeeze her eyes shut to shake her head, trying to block the images in her mind. Teal'c didn't prod his friend, waiting patiently for her to recover.

"S-sir." Carter answered shakily, breathing deeply. "We, we have a lot of bodies here. At least fifty, possibly as many as a h-hundred. Nothing fresh."

" _What did em in?_ " O'Neill questioned, unknowingly causing one of the Marines to force down another retch.

"I-I don't know." Carter answered quickly.

" _Alright, listen to me. I need you to keep it together for a minute or two. Find the transmitter power and cut it, once that's done get out. Understood?_ " went the Colonel's authoritative tone, steadying the unseen Major.

"Understood." she repeated quietly.

" _Don't stay there a second longer than you have to, got me? O'Neill out._ " the radio clicked off, but there was no doubt he was hovering on his end.

Taking a deep breath, Carter first turned to the Marines. "Guard this door."

"Yes ma'am." both chorused, very quickly. Neither showed any sign of dissent to the order.

When Carter faced the field of death once more, her first step was joined by Teal'c. A quick look from her was met by a solemn nod, causing her to glance forward again, slowly inhaling. Forcing back a shiver, she stepped closer to the piles of bones, her longtime companion staying within arms reach.

It was slow going. Each step through the space had to be carefully judged, placed so to not step on any bones or objects in the way. Teal'c had his eyes on the floor for the entire way, trusting in the Marines to warn them of external danger. Staff held aloft at his side, the Jaffa moved through the bone field as carefully as he could. Despite his caution however, there were limits to his ability. Accidentally stepping on a hand created an echoing crunch, making Carter jerk her head over. Her faster paced breathing picked up even more, eyes wide until they saw his mistake. But just as she began to relax, her own boot fell on a thigh, the resulting crack almost causing her to trip. Exchanging a stunned (and slightly embarrassed) look, she groaned.

Even Teal'c breathed a sigh of relief once they reached the other side, coming up to a control panel. There were a few corpses scattered about here as well, but compared to the mass they just traversed it wasn't a problem. As the tension began to drain from him, he saw Carter drop her head to take a deep breath. A couple steps brought him within arms reach, a single hand held up in the space.

"Are you well?" he said softy, knowing the sound wouldn't carry to the men.

"I'm fine." she half panted, leaning back to breath. "It's, just..."

"I understand. Few warriors can be unmoved by this sight." he admitted, dropping his arm.

"Yeah." she sighed, hair ruffling while she shook her head. "Let's get this over with."

"Indeed." he softly agreed, backing away to let her get to the control panel. She moved swiftly, visibly focusing on the task at hand.

Teal'c began to scan over the masses again, but paused when he heard the blonde cough. Peering over his shoulder, he saw her standing a short distance from the controls, movement halted.

"Could you come here for a sec?" she asked quietly, moving to the side so he could come up to her spot. Looking at her askance, he raised a brow when she nervously cleared her throat and pointed. "You see something wrong here?"

Following her direction, Teal'c frowned at the control panel. Other than the different script, he saw little visible difference between this and others he'd encountered, such as on a Hatak. The streaks from a hand swipe were undignified in his opinion, the move only clearing off a small part of the dust. He spied a small pile in the corner where it was left.

"I do not." he said softly.

Carter gulped. "I didn't touch it."

Teal'c paused, looking back to the dust with haste. Examining it for a moment, he glanced to her again, focusing on her sleeves and pant legs. Without a word she offered out her hands to show him. The lower half of her shins were the only unclean parts on her body.

"If you did not, then who did?" he questioned lowly, slowly coming back to the hastily wiped panel.

"I don't know, but it would explain why the air was in good condition when we arrived." she replied in the same way.

The Jaffa took in a breath. "This changes little."

Nodding in agreement, Carter went back to the panel, Teal'c backing away to give her room. While she accessed the system, he once again scanned over the room, letting his gaze fall upon the closest of the bodies. Hearing little aside from the humming reactor and her work, there wasn't much to distract him from inspecting the corpses. Lowering to a crouch, he rested a hand on the staff as he focused, settling onto one covered in rusted gold jewelry. He had a strong feeling this particular one was a Goa'uld; the brutal satisfaction welling up within him was crushed in a moment, once he saw the crumpled bones all over him. This one, an underlord perhaps, died slowly under the feet of his subjects, suffering a fate just as terrible as his servants.

Hearing a panel opening, he looked over to see a tray of glowing crystals extending out. Carter then methodically went over the different colored crystals one by one, face scrunched up in deep thought. He didn't consider disturbing her work, not after her reaction from minutes ago. At some unseen point she made an "ah" noise, plucking a large blue crystal from the tray, holding it up to see minute glow within darken.

A moment later the radio crackled, Daniel's voice coming across a little clearer than earlier. " _Just got an error report, loss of power to a vital system. Looks like... external comms._ "

Carter smiled bashfully, setting the crystal on an outcropping while she pushed the tray back. As Teal'c stood up, both their radios crackled again, this time a static filled voice came on.

" _...his is Chariot, we're no longer reading a subspace transmission. Excellent work people._ "

Sighing in relief, the blonde's half grin faded when she looked over the space again. This time the Jaffa stepped in front of her, silently offering. A nod was her answer, making him face forward resolutely.

Going back was easier than heading in, although the pair managed to step on a couple more remains along the way. This time the unnerving cracks weren't as disruptive to either member, yet they took pains to avoid stepping on bones or items regardless. Neither looked enthused by the route in any case, not until they came out the other side. The two Marines waiting approached to show relief, keeping a buffer zone between themselves and the piles. Without a word Carter bent over to knock as much of the material off her legs as possible, while Teal'c merely tapped his feet on the floor. That done, she gestured for them to head out the door, tapping on the controls on the way.

Once the grinding door sealed again, Carter almost staggered, letting out a weak breath as she slumped against the wall. A quiet offer of help was waved off.

"If I never go in there again it'll be too soon." she said, fighting back a grimace.

"Agreed ma'am." the Marine answered, his companion nodding quickly.

"This room must be cleared out." Teal'c informed flatly, for a second making the blood drain from the troops faces. "But we will be far away when that happens." he added, immediately causing them to sigh in relief.

As if cued to ruin their good mood, the radio chirped.

" _All teams, we found something good. Carter, Teal'c, head back to the control room. Wash, send a couple guys you don't need, Daniels going with them._ " O'Neill commanded. " _Think we hit the jackpot._ "

...

00000

...

Groaning from disuse, the thick metal doors pried apart, the noise loud enough to wake the dead. First one set split, absorbed into the walls. Then came a secondary barrier, this one evenly dividing into the ceiling and the floor. Semi-fresh air met the stilled atmosphere within, stirring maddeningly complex patterns of dust in the dimly lit space beyond.

The first two to enter the long sealed area were O'Neill and Reynolds, their respective weapons held up as they slowly toed inside. A slow procession entered after them: Daniel and a wary Marine stepping after the Colonels, with Teal'c walking behind them with his staff held in front of his torso. Carter and Winter were next, the latter stealing glances at the hard faced blonde with her weapon held high. Last in were a pair of MP5 wielding Airmen, along with the remainder of the Marines.

O'Neill stopped a few paces in, creasing his brow. "What's this place?"

His voice briefly echoed off the expansive corridor, resembling a prison block more than anything. No decorations or embellishments were visible, only a set of large glass-like panes spaced apart, with a number of lights on the ceiling and over the apparent cells. The dust was much thicker in here, each footfall causing a small flurry of scattered particles. Faintly visible was a thin cloud from every breath, due to the much cooler temperature. Some of the glass doors were solid white, some were clear, and a few cells had no barrier at all.

Carter went around the men, briefly fighting down a grimace as she walked to the closest of the large panes. Each one was approximately two and a half meters tall and three wide, faintly reflecting the light. But the surface itself seemed opaque, covered in shiny frost.

After gently running a hand over the surface, she gave the scratching ice a puzzled look. "Its cold sir, but this is definitely powered."

"What do you think it is?" O'Neill asked, coming up beside her. He saw the unease in her body language, but didn't comment yet.

"I'm not sure. But if I had to guess." she peered to the side, locating a palm sized panel. "It could be a stasis chamber."

Reynolds strolled up behind them, exchanging a frown with Daniel. "For what?"

O'Neill frowned, sending a sidelong glance at the outsider of their group to wave them on. Winter approached them with her borrowed M9 pointed at the floor, a wary look on her features as she stopped, waiting expectantly as the Marines slowly moved further in with leveled weapons.

"Sir?"

"Commander, earlier you said the odds of a Grimm being loose in here were low, why?" he jumped right to the point, giving the couple open cells in sight an uneasy look.

"Because sir, its impossible to keep Grimm in captivity. They just die if they're locked up too long. If memory serves, the longest recorded Grimm survived only three days." Winter answered, frowning as she adjusted her footing.

"And this whole base seems like one giant cell." Daniel noted, glancing between her and the cells. He kept his own M9 in hand, maintaining a similar pose as the Specialist. "Based on what I've seen, I don't think there's enough rations here to maintain a human for more than a couple years."

"The bodies we've observed were mauled, not devoured." Teal'c informed, inadvertently making Carter grimace. He checked on the others; the Airmen of SG-9 had the exit secured, weapons at the ready. Meanwhile SG-3 were inspecting the many cells, a couple men brushing off some frost to peer inside.

"Well sir." the Major turned around, idly rubbing her hands together. "It's possible these containment cells could keep some specimens alive. Or, whatever counts as alive for these creatures. They seem very well built by Goa'uld standards, and it fits my theory of the Grimm's origin."

Winter shook her head. "With respect ma'am, I doubt there's any Grimm in this base now."

"Sure?" O'Neill prodded.

"Positive sir." Winter answered.

"Anderson back there said the only thing the internal sensors registered were you guys." Daniel offered, jerking a thumb to the exit.

"I find it unlikely." Teal'c opined.

"Got something!"

All five whipped around, weapons raised in an instant. They locked onto the source: a Marine who backed away several pace from a frosted cell with his weapon aimed. Though the man was still calm, there was a visible flush to his features at whatever he saw. Without a word the Colonel jogged over, the rest of SG-1 on his heels.

Reynolds reached him first, sparing a look towards the glass. "Cho?"

The Marine jerked his head over, suddenly gulping at the attention he was receiving. "Sir, there's something in there."

Gazing to the glass, Reynolds lifted his own M4 as SG-1 joined the rest of the Marines. O'Neill walked past the others to the door, the men and women adjusting their position to accommodate him. Sparing a questioning glance at them, he leaned in to cup a hand over his brow over the cleared part. A heartbeat later he backed away, blinking in surprise.

"Oh, oh-kay then." he mumbled. "There's a werewolf looking thingamajig in there."

No sooner did the words leave his lips was Winter upon him, all but shoving aside Teal'c and Daniel on her way to the glass cell. Raising his hands defensively, O'Neill stepped back to let the woman hunch over the cleared patch, staring inside breathlessly. She retreated from her spot, blinking in raw astonishment at the glass. Specifically the bony white and red mask edged by black matter, bearing a resemblance to a wolf head, pressed up to the clear door in a frozen snarl.

"That's... thats a Beowolf. But how?" Winter got out. A second later her brow narrowed, and she swiftly drew the rapier, ignoring the eyes snapping to her. "We need to kill it."

"Wait, hang on." Carter stepped into view, sending an apologetic look to O'Neill. "Sir, this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to examine this technology. The fact it kept a creature like this intact for millennia speaks volumes for its capabilities."

"Doesn't matter. You open this chamber, this Grimm will try to kill you. We need to eliminate it at once." Winter insisted.

"How long have your people been fighting these creatures? This could be one of the first Grimm, it should be studied." the blonde added, sending a frown at the white haired woman.

"I agree with Commander Winter. These creatures are likely the cause behind this facility's end." Teal'c rumbled, the pair of Marines who accompanied them vigorously nodding in agreement.

"Now wait a sec." Daniel held up a placating hand. "First off, has anyone considered the possibility this thing could adapt to the base? I'm all for studying them, but we shouldn't just crack it open right away."

"Better now, when there's an expert on hand." Winter shot back, earning a narrowed brow.

O'Neill rolled his eyes. "Kids." he muttered, pointing the P90 at the ceiling. "May I have your attention?"

When the squabbling increased, he took a simple breath.

" _That's enough!_ " he shouted in an authoritative tone, layering on every ounce of command of his long carrier. The results were instantaneous: the group was silenced, each one switching their attentions over. "Thank you." he said sarcastically, lowering the weapon. "Alright, everyone with a weapon form up by the door. Carter, crack it open."

"But sir-" the blonde protested, not seeing a satisfied smirk on the Specialist's face.

"There's more than one cell. We're only killing this one." he said, making Winter's smile drop. "We need to know how hard it is to kill these things. This seems to be a perfect chance." Swiping a hand at Daniel, he went on. "Just this one. There's, how many more cells did you count?" he turned to ask.

"Thirty, forty more. About half seem occupied." Reynolds answered, gesturing at SG-3.

"Perfect. Anyway." O'Neill moved to a good spot to aim at the door, the Marines joining him. Teal'c had his staff leveled at the glass without a word, while Daniel adopted a sour look. Carter darted to the hand sized panel, hesitating for a second before she played with the controls.

Only seconds later the panel chirped and the whitish light above the cell turned an angry red, coinciding with a squealing noise of the glass being lifted. The cue made her pull the weapon from her back, the compact block quickly extending out into a compact rifle. Nine weapons trained on the opening door, resolute even as a wash of billowing condensation flowed over the dusty floor. The frost crackled over the seals, sending a brief hail of snowy ice cascading to the ground. Once the glass slid out of sight, the sound vanished with it. Until something large hit the ground.

Eight pairs of wide eyes watched the frost covered mass ripple, long frozen limbs moving for the first time in an epoch. The body of the creature stirred, the four legs pushing off the floor with what appeared to be great effort; a screech of sharp claws against the metal floor caused most of the group to flinch, fortunately lasting but a second. Once its head was off the floor, the faintly lupine creature, perhaps two meters tall if it stood up, gave the bony mass a good shake. A sound not unlike a hefty pant left his mouth, rising up to show a maw filled with sharp teeth.

Lifting up it's head, the red eyes of the Beowolf settled on the breathless humans a short distance from it, black lids flashing over the eyes in a blink. Then a low growl escaped the creature.

" _Sir._ " Reynolds went nervously, gripping his weapon tighter, as was the case for his team.

A blink of an eye, and the Grimm's fate was sealed. The rising growl of the beast was cut off, only a thick gasp of breath escaped it. Sticking out from its mouth was the cause, a silvery rapier buried almost to the hilt, and with a twist the weapon was torn away, splattering ichor in a thick stream. A moment later the Beowolf started to dissolve, fading into a scattered pile of black colored ash.

"Grimm eliminated." Winter reported, taking out a handkerchief to wipe her sword down.

O'Neill lowered the P90 to snort, catching Daniel's attention.

"Well, there goes your chance to prove the kid wrong." the bespectacled man said, earning a dry glare from the Colonel.

Before the two teams could relax, a grunt from further inside made Winter jerk away, raising her weapon as the guns snapped up once again. The Colonel sighed to himself, toeing around the others to get a good look inside. But what he saw caused his brow to raise.

Rising from the corner was a small figure, clearly humanoid in appearance. One glance showed it to be completely unlike the Grimm; it was short, a meter and a half tall at the most, covered in a whitish robe. Shaggy white hair streamed from the head in uneven clumps, the mass shaking as the figure half staggered to their feet. For a moment it was still, hands on its hips as it sucked in breath. When it finally looked up, O'Neill was briefly too stunned to react.

Fortunately Daniel was as helpful as always, raising a hand to wave. "Hi."

The figure stood up, walking on unsteady feet to the edge of the cell. He, definitely a he, looked like a pale skinned human in his late thirties, although scuffs and scratches abounded all over his form. His sharp features regarded the nine in front of him with wary indifference.

"Um, hello." Daniel said, coughing into a fist. "We are..." he hesitated for a moment, glancing to his side as O'Neill did.

"Nothing I can sense." Carter answered the unspoken question, Teal'c giving one abridged nod. Despite the clear he kept the end of his staff aimed at the being's torso, a second from blasting him.

"Anyway, we are the people of Earth. You are...?" the archeologist left hanging, noting uneasily how the man's eyes had settled on the sword armed woman.

The being inclined his head back. "I am Faramir."

His voice was smooth and melodic, the five syllables pronounced with flawless grace. The simple answer immediately set the group on edge, though none could say why.

"Why are you here?" the named being asked curiously, his eyes falling to the patch of ash near his feet. "You killed it."

"I did." Winter spoke up, going on the defensive when glances came her way.

"Did you?" Faramir asked, eyes falling on the blade. "I see. You are well versed in slaying these soulless monsters. A mercy I suppose."

"...Yes." she answered carefully.

"How'd you get in there?" O'Neill butted in, his aim unwavering.

"There was a containment breach, the Jaffa did not take the appropriate care. I sealed myself in this cell to escape the aftermath. It's clearly been quite some time, if free Tau'ri are here." Faramir said, tone neutral in spite of the subject matter.

Just as the Colonel started to reply, Winter took a step closer. "Why didn't the Grimm kill you?"

"Grimm?" he asked, creasing his brow for a second. "Ah, these." he waved a hand to the ash. "They are aggressive beasts, but easy to trick. They could not see me."

Teal'c likewise came a little closer, ignoring O'Neill's grimace. His brow narrowed dangerously. "You are not human."

"Neither are you Jaffa, First Prime of Apophis." Faramir glanced his way, calm despite his stiffening posture. "But you are correct. I am of an old race called the Nox."

A new silence descended over the humans, this one filled with baffled surprise. O'Neill in particular lowered his P90, jaw dropping as he went, "Seriously?"

The only one not affected was Winter, frowning as she lowered her sword. "I don't understand."

"I know the limits of their vision, so I and my kind can hide from the creatures you call Grimm with impunity." Faramir replied, serene despite the puzzled looks the others were sharing.

"Are you sure?" the woman pressed, tone disbelieving.

"Of course, I made sure of that when I created them." he replied matter of factly, taking a second to smooth out his robe.


	27. Wayward Son

Out of all group members present, Daniel was the first to recover from the simplistic answer, though he could do little this quickly. He raised his arms from his sides, making a gesture not unlike an impassioned plea before falling limp. One hand idly massaging the beretta still in his grip, though he seemed to have forgotten about it otherwise. He made no effort to mimic the raised weapons of his colleagues in any case.

"Wait." he said after a moment, forcing his slackened jaw shut. "You created these things."

"Yes." Faramir replied simply, his tone utterly at ease. The pale being swiveled to his arm, wrinkling his brow at a length of fabric spilling from the sleeve.

"That's impossible." Carter spoke up in confusion; unlike Daniel, she hadn't relaxed her aim. Upon seeing her example SG-3 refocused as well, stealing peeks at the Colonels for a cue.

"My race is old. Such wonders are not beyond our sciences." the Nox answered, drawing his sleeve back to show off a forearm covered in cloth. Lacking concern, he began to rewrap a loose end.

Teal'c narrowed his gaze further. "Your race are pacifists one and all." he said, causing Faramir to halt. "You would defend a Goa'uld who stole a body for his own."

"What he said." O'Neill moved a step closer and took a hand off the P90 to wave at him, although the weapons barrel never left its target. "Your people are a bunch of space hippies who can't throw a punch if your lives depended on it. You wouldn't even make the goold get off your own planet."

"I wouldn't put it like that..." Daniel began quietly, but he straightened up at the aside glance he received. "But he's right. How could you willingly create something this destructive? It goes against everything your people stand for."

Faramir raised a brow. "You've know of the Nox?"

"We've been to Gaia before." Carter answered, ignoring the Colonel's mumbling.

"I see now. Dreadful place, was it not?" he remarked, causing SG-1 to blink. "I will assume they told you something akin to 'children do not always listen to their elders' or some such? Perhaps they said your ways are not the only path?"

"They told us this verbatim." Teal'c spoke, entirely neutral. Yet the head of his staff tracked every move the Nox made, no matter how slight.

"I assumed so." Faramir nodded, taking several steps forward to leave the cell.

With a wave from O'Neill the humans backed away to give him room, letting his bare feet pad onto the cold surface. The fact all but two had a weapon trained on him did not seem to bother the pale man. When he stopped again, the group subtly reformed so he was surrounded in a semi circle.

"My people are wise, but they forget the perspective of youth. They can be quite inflexible in their views, unlike myself." he said with faint pride in his tone.

Carter slumped. "I think we found the Nox Loki."

"Loki? You know of my colleague?" he turned to ask, surprise in his tone. In a very human fashion, he raised a brow when the Major squeezed her eyes shut.

"Alright alright." O'Neill said loudly, waving a hand to get their attentions. He was clearly running out of patience, seeking to get a handle on the situation while he still could.

Turning to face him, the Nox brought his hands together and waited, his stubbled expression showing only faint expectation. In contrast the human was all but glaring, brow narrowed as he let an arm fall. But as a show of faith, the barrel of the P90 was finally lowered to the floor, although he kept it pointed in his general direction. For a second the Colonel reached behind his back to scratch something, making an unseen gesture which caught Reynolds' eye; neither man showed any sign of the quiet exchange, and the onlookers dared not comment. Then the Marine began to circle the party without a word, never taking his gaze off the being.

"First off, why are you working for the snakes? You're not infested, and your race aren't the power hungry types. So what gives?" O'Neill claimed, flopping an arm at the stilled Nox.

Faramir unexpectedly smiled.

"You really are free Tau'ri. No human slave would dare speak of their lords in such a fashion." he noted, swiveling his gaze to a bristling Teal'c. "I'm curious about you however."

"Still here." O'Neill warned.

"If you insist. I only ask one question in return." he raised a hand, briefly increasing the Colonel's grimace. But in the end, he nodded. "Thank you. Now, what became of Ra?"

"Dead." Carter answered simply, shifting her weight. "Colonel O'Neill killed him eight years ago."

Faramir raised his brow, blinking at the human. "Can it be, a slayer of a System Lord? Before me?"

"Yeah." Daniel confirmed, forcing his wrinkled expression to soften.

He shook his head with a small smile. "Truly, these are interesting times. To think I would live to see this era."

"Anyway, start talking." O'Neill snapped, staring hard at the Nox. When he made a small circle motion in the air, the being raised a brow in confusion before apparently dismissing the gesture.

"You are correct. I do not seek power for the sake of selfish power. Ra attempted to have me infested, but I expelled the Goa'uld every time it burrowed into my body. Even his more imaginative tortures." Faramir drew his sleeve back, showing off the cloth over his forearm and palm, which he began to methodically untie. "Did not break my will. My tolerance for pain exceeded his expectations."

He only undid half of the bandage, tying the cloth in a bundle over his other palm for reuse. Raising the limb, Faramir showed the exposed forearm to the humans with a mildly bemused expression, reminiscing old memories as he presented the limb. No one with line of sight could look away from the cracked and warped skin; the flesh looked as if it was melted and hastily frozen, sagging in some places while stretched thin in others. A few patches were discolored, either paler than the rest or permanently blackened.

"I confess, Ra was more cautious with me than he would have been for any slave. One does not encounter a Nox everyday after all." he explained, rewrapping the bandage while the stunned humans watched.

O'Neill forced a breath down and hardened his expression. "That doesn't answer a damn thing."

"The purpose of this was to show you I cooperated with Ra out of my own free will, there was no coercion in any fashion." Faramir concluded, finishing retying the cloth to drag his sleeve down. "The resources that Ra could bring to bear dwarfed anything I could acquire, but only I was capable of breathing life into the Soulless."

From behind him a quiet voice spoke. "The Grimm."

Turning around, the Nox laid eyes upon the outsider of the party, one who had been silent for the past couple minutes. A few members of the group glanced her way as well, with Daniel being the first one to stiffen in concern. The woman didn't move her gaze when he discreetly waved; she paid zero attention to anyone or anything that wasn't the pale alien.

"You mean the Grimm." Winter said lowly, her tone soft yet near accusatory. She held her rapier and the borrowed M9 in each clenched hand, both weapons held by her uncomfortably still posture in an unbreakable grip. The woman's cold blue eyes unnervingly watched his every move.

"I dubbed them Soulless because that is what they are. They are creatures who exist without Life, completely separate from it. The Life that flows through all beings, from the smallest bacteria to yourself." he gently waved his arms to the humans in a wide gesture before dropping them. "Is absent from them. It is a hellish existence, so I do not fault you for slaying them." Faramir creased his brow, tilting his head to the side. "But you knew that already, right human?"

"Human." Winter repeated lowly. She inclined her head back, still locked onto him. "I am Commander Winter Schnee, of the Atlesian Military Specialist Operations Unit. My job is to kill Grimm."

"Uh, Commander?" Daniel went, holding out a placating hand to the woman. Teal'c and Carter took their eyes off the Nox at last, while O'Neill leaned to the side to see. One look made him reach for his holster, fingers curling over the Zat while he nodded to the Marines to back away.

"I dedicated my life to slaying these monsters. Its a never ending battle just to survive. My family, my nation, my entire civilization, we've been fighting the Grimm for our entire recorded history. I've lost comrades, friends, I nearly lost my sister to them." Her eyes narrowed. "And its allyour fault _._ "

Powerful glowing runes popped into existence behind the woman, blasting forward before anyone could react. Daniel and Teal'c took the brunt of the blow, sent flying while the others scattered out of the way. A lone second after the runes bowled the two teams away Winter was upon Faramir, lunging with her sword sweeping out.

But when her blade made contact, it sliced through the Nox with no resistance. A whoosh of air was the only result of her strike, his form seeming to ripple in place for a moment. Abruptly it dissolved into wisps, fading away like he never was. A footstep on a far wall caused her to twist around with a snarl, once again locking onto him. In contrast he had a brow lifted high.

"I did not think this was possible." he said with quiet amazement, just as a fresh set of runes appeared behind the woman.

Burning with cold fury, she turned to stalk towards him with her weapons held by her side, inexorably locked onto the Nox. One rune grew larger than the rest, rotating in place while it obediently following in her footsteps like a well trained pet, its presence alone making the air seem to tremble with unseen power. But she didn't unleash her semblance on Faramir, not yet. She still had a gun after all.

Whipping the M9 up, Winter grimaced when she squeezed the trigger. The light recoil made the small weapon jerk in her hand; the slide flung a brass case flying out of her sight, while the report nearly deafened her in the enclosed space. Not that it mattered to the woman, since her target was in the same place when she fired. She was a few meters from him with no exit in sight, while her semblance blocked any other routes. He was trapped with no escape.

Ears ringing, Winter suddenly paused. Contrary to all that she knew, going against every scrap of training and teaching she had received and given in her life, and flying in the face of the facts presented to her, Faramir was unharmed. Standing completely still half a meter from his previous spot, he glanced at the wall where his head was a second ago, focusing on the spiderwebbed crack where the bullet struck.

"You are trying to kill me." he observed.

Snarling in fury, Winter marched ahead and proceeded to empty the magazine. To her mounting frustration (as well as a trace of fear), she failed to hit the alien once; every time she had the sights settled upon him, he seemed to blink right out of the way, narrowly avoiding every gunshot she let loose. To grate on her nerves further, he showed no sign of fatigue at his blatantly impossible act, or any emotion at all. Only that damning look of unhappy curiosity.

When the slide locked back, she tossed the pistol aside and closed the remaining distance in an eye blink. This time Winter almost screamed, watching with raw fury how her stab somehow missed Faramir entirely; instead she impaled the rapiers length into the wall, hard enough to lodge it in place. She bared her teeth at the man who was just out of her reach, not even breathing hard from avoiding her attacks. Then a vicious smirk came over the woman, sending the mental command to the runes which now surrounded them both.

Out of the largest rune shuddered and rippled, causing a form to pour out from the center; it was a twisted arachnid monster, faintly resembling a gargantuan scorpion that barely fit into the tiny space. Whereas this type of beast was black and red, the monster she summoned was inverted with blue and white. The hostility of its breed was fully preserved however, only redirected to its master's enemies. Its many compound eyes focused on Faramir, seeming to glare at him just for existing.

He raised his eyebrows in mild surprise.

"Is it you doing this?" he asked quietly, while the resurrected Grimm slammed its tail on the floor, only just missing the man sneaking closer.

"Consider it an appropriate punishment." she all but hissed at him. The small Deathstalker raised its tail over its body, drawing back in order to wind it up. The sharp point of the tip was quivering in anticipation.

"Can I convince you to stop?" Faramir gave her an aside glance.

Winter glared at his lack of emotion. "Not a chance-"

A double chirp came right before a bolt of electricity hit the woman, dropping her with a gurgled cry. The white Deathstalker twitched once, then it dissolved into white colored particles which vanished into oblivion, along with the rest of the glowing runes. When she hit the ground, the only remaining hint that anything happened where the cracks on the floor where the Grimm stepped.

Poised a couple meters away Reynolds lowered the Zat, sucking in a deep breath to deal with the adrenaline draining from his system. He slumped in apparent relief just as a weak groan left Winter, causing him to snap back up in surprise. The Marine brought the weapon around once more, but hesitated before he aimed at her again. Indecision flashed over his expression while he watched her flop an arm in front of herself, laboriously heaving for breath as she dragged herself away.

Without a word Faramir closed the short gap between them, crouching down to to lay a hand on her head. When he closed his eyes, the woman's movements slowed to a crawl, then stopped completely. Her breathing calmed, smoothing out until she was almost silent. After a moment of his unseen act he let go, rising up to first give the sword stuck in the wall a disapproving look, then to focus on the puzzled human watching him.

"She is asleep. When she awakes there will be consequences, but for now you have nothing to fear." he explained smoothly.

"Thanks." Reynolds smiled in appreciation, firing the Zat from the hip. Faramir jerked to the side before he fell into an undignified heap.

...

00000

...

For the first time in more years than she cared to remember, Salem found herself completely at a loss.

The dark master of this realm stood a little ways from her her throne, frozen in place and staring. A minute ago she returned to the main hall, intending to consult with her Seers and the machines her subordinates left, checking up on their progress and to give orders. But instead she stopped at the other end of the expansive table, her expression blank as she stared unblinkingly at the intruder. An intruder who was audacious enough to sit with one leg crossed over the other, while she made herself comfortable on her throne.

Playing with the master's scroll, a dusky skinned woman looked up and smiled. "Hi there."

"Who are you? And how did you sneak in here?" Salem questioned cooly, striding along the table towards the relaxed human sitting on her throne. In a split second she could launch a bolt of energy to impale the woman, long before any weapons she had could be brought to bear. Not that she could see any hidden in her simple robes.

"Who I am is irrelevant. The question you should be asking is why I'm here." the woman replied easily, reaching out to slide the scroll back on the table. Then she leaned back to cross her arms, grinning while she sat on her throne.

"I will find out in a moment." the master closed in on the intruder, noting the distinct absence of fear. "When I am finished, I will grant you the privilege of a quick..."

Salem paused several meters away, her eyelids blinking while she trailed off. Something akin to human surprise ghosted over her features, almost causing the woman to back away. The impulse was quashed fast, but the residual wariness remained.

"But to answer your second question." the woman lazily gestured at her torso. "Is via magics beyond mortal understanding. Magic of the gods, you could say."

The master was still for several long seconds. Whatever feelings of indignant anger she felt for the intruder on her throne were gone. It occurred to her that she was alone; Cinder was sent to find the artifact, Watts and Hazel almost to Haven, and Tyrian was dead. There was no one else in her inner circle, and no one else she could trust to stay in the castle. Until her Grimm sentries arrived in several minutes, she had to face this danger alone.

"You understand." the woman said with a grin, squirming to make herself more comfortable.

Salem focused her gaze, as well as the dark energies flowing into her cupped hand. "I thought your kind had died out long ago, before Remnant came to be."

"Sorta yes, sorta no. Its complicated, let me leave it at that." she explained, grabbing her elbows while she slumped further.

"Very well. Why have you come?" Salem tipped her head back, affixing a cold stare upon the intruder sitting on her throne.

The woman's grin shifted. "For the sake of time, I'll make things simple. I have a vested interest in the affairs of this world, but I'm barred from acting directly. Sorta like you." she flopped an arm at the inhuman being. "I have a couple designs to which Remnant and the people on it will play an important role in the future. But..."

"But what?" Salem prodded, unmoving.

"The rules to which I'm bound have, shall we say, some attached strings." she idly waved a hand as she spoke, the master of the realm watching the limb for a moment. "As part of these strings, I have to give other sides an opportunity. I can't just interfere with one faction, I have to approach whomever else is involved in this game. If Ozpin benefits as a result, than the opportunity must be given to you too."

"What do you mean?" Salem questioned neutrally, though her curled lip betrayed her thoughts.

"Its simple really. Ozpin has found a game changing advantage, in the shape of a large ring." the woman traced a circle in the air in front of her, ticking her grin upwards.

"The same ring that will soon be in my hands. My subordinate is in the process of claiming it as we speak." Salem retorted, only just stopping herself from smirking.

"You're putting an awful lot of faith into a failure. Oh well, your choice." the woman replied, deepening her grin. "Not that it matters. Ozpin has already found potential allies."

Again Salem froze, but this time visible surprise flitted across her features.

"To cut a long story short, very soon he will claim the ring, build a fortress to contain it, and use the knowledge it offers to make the humans unstoppable. Soon, you will lose any hope of destroying them. Your plots, your designs, your subordinates." she brought her hands together to mime an explosion.

Salem considering impaling this arrogant intruder and dragging her corpse off her throne, but the doubts stopped her. If what she said was true...

"What do you offer?" she asked cooly.

"Knowledge, just as I gave to the others. Nothing more. You can act on the information or disregard it, and you may do with this gift as you please. The choice is yours." she finished with a sweep of her hand.

...

00000

...

The brig door whooshed open, revealing a weapon already pointed inside. The owner of the M4 carefully entered the small containment room, the security Airman clearing the opening to scoot to the far wall in a semi dignified shuffle. The second she was clear another Airman followed her in, repeating the process on the opposite side. And then another, and another, until there were six armed humans in the room, each one aiming their rifles at the single occupant in the cell. None looked enthused to be in the same space as the prisoner.

Once the men and women were established, two more humans entered the brig. Daniel's posture was faintly calm, but he was clearly ill at ease. Perhaps at the blatant show of force, or it was due to the reason for coming in here at all. Behind him walked an imposing and sluggish Ironwood, one who made no effort to hide his distasteful expression. He stopped beside the archeologist, clenching and unclenching his left hand repeatedly.

"Um, hello again." Daniel began, clearing his throat into a fist. A grimace crossed his face at something, unlike his companion.

Sitting cross legged on the floor with his back pressed against the wall, Faramir nodded in acknowledgment. "Greetings."

"Right." Daniel brought his hands together, wrinkling his brow. "You'll have to pardon the accommodations, since... okay, I'll be blunt. We don't exactly have a reason trust you."

"I understand. You have my word I will not attempt to escape." the Nox replied, unmoving save for his nodding head.

Daniel let out a breath, dropping his arms. "Thanks. Anyway, we have some... questions for you."

Before anyone could stop him, Ironwood stepped closer to the prisoner to level a glare. The Airmen stirred at his disregard for safety, although he made sure to stay out of their line of sight if or when they did open fire. Unlike Daniel, he showed no sign of hiding his feelings.

"Greetings to you." Faramir greeted, dipping his head once in acknowledgement.

"When Colonel O'Neill informed me that my most trusted subordinate lost control and tried to kill someone, I didn't believe him." Ironwood began without preamble, creasing his brow. "Then they explained what the cause was. It's taking me a great deal of effort to not repeat her actions."

"Do you mean attempting to kill me, or Winter's abilities?" the Nox questioned in return.

"Anyway." Daniel grabbed ahold of Ironwood's limp arm, earning a sour glare in return. When he let go however, the General sullenly backed away. That done, the bespectacled man returned to the prisoner. "You'll have to pardon General Ironwood, he's..."

"Quite angry, being a native of the planet below us and all." Faramir guessed, earning a quiet sigh.

"I can't think of a single citizen of Remnant who wouldn't lynch you for what you've done." Ironwood told him, staring at the alien with poorly concealed hostility.

"Of course. Meeting the one responsible for creating a death world is not cause for goodwill." he said neutrally. "Though you are wrong about one detail."

"What would that be?" the General questioned darkly, straightening out his jacket. His hand strayed towards the pistol tucked over his inner shirt for a moment before it dropped.

Faramir tipped his head back. "The world you hail from is named Phanes. Not Remnant."

"...Excuse me?" Ironwood wrinkled his brow dangerously, though he didn't attempt to go for his jacket this time.

"Hang on, I know that name. Its from my world's mythology." Daniel spoke up, frowning when he lifted a hand. The pale being nodded.

"I am certain the Goa'uld have appropriated the name for one purpose or another. But the word originates from the Nox." he explained, for a moment glancing to the floor. "Long ago, my people terraformed this planet with the intent to colonize it. But after the Ancients died out, those plans were abandoned in favor of strict isolationism. Shame really, after all the effort put into seeding it with Dust." he finished, shaking his head.

"Wait..." the General was now openly frowning, wrinkling his brow in confusion. Daniel had his own features scrunched up in puzzlement, and a glance to the Airmen showed them to be in similar condition.

"The same material you have powering your cybernetics yes. Very creative usage I should add." the pale alien confirmed, not reacting to the man's double take. "Dust is the cornerstone of Nox technology, even though it is rendered inert outside of a planet's grasp. It took centuries for my race to learn how to compensate for this flaw. Your people appear to be treading our path."

While Ironwood did his absolute best not to gawk (and remember how furious he was), Daniel could only go, "Huh."

"I will assume your visit to Gaia was rather short, otherwise the elders might have shown off their flying cities. After lecturing you for having the impulse to defend yourselves in their presence of course. I wonder if they told you their technology was created by stardust, or if they simply treated you like childish primitives." Faramir mused to himself, causing the General to scowl.

"You better start making sense or I'll..." Ironwood's growing rant was cut off by Daniel waving a hand in his face, briefly making his glare switch to the man. The frowning archeologist didn't make an issue of his hostility, settling for subdued relief when the Remnant native took a deep breath.

"Okay, how about we move on." he suggested, trying a hopeful shrug.

Faramir leaned back as far as he was able to, bringing his hands up to tent his fingers. "What would you like me to tell you Doctor Jackson? I advise the eleven humans outside to have your recording devices on. And if your Asgard made transporter isn't locked onto yourselves, I suggest you do so now."

While Ironwood flinched in surprise and the Airmen exchanged worried looks, Daniel merely sighed. Adjusting his glasses, he first looked over his shoulders to the tiny window on the door, catching a thumbs up from the tiny pane. Nodding to himself, he faced the alien and straightened up.

"How about the Grimm first." he said, catching a flicker over Ironwood's expression. Chosen for being the least able to lash out while the trio of natives were on the ship, he idly wondered if the man wouldn't try something anyway.

"I call them Soulless, but it seems I am the only one who does so." Faramir said, briefly closing his eyes to let out a breath. An imperceptible shudder worked its way through his body. "They exist because I wanted to create a weapon."

"Now you see, that's why we're confused." Daniel raised a hand to point, frowning. "I admit we don't know that much about the Nox, but we do know your people are total pacifists. There's only one we met who skirted on the line, and even then she was barely willing to do it. So why?"

"That is exactly the reason why I made them. I wanted to make a weapon to enact our will across the stars, because we could not do so ourselves." he explained, his tone shifting away from the calmness of before. "What you call the Grimm were meant to be so much more than mindless beasts, blindly attacking any sapient being. They were supposed be instruments of our will, destroying the monsters from the darkness, and repairing damage to life bearing worlds."

"Your attack dogs." Ironwood growled, anger flashing over him and several of the Airmen.

"If you mean what I believe you to mean, then yes. Violence is anathema to our very souls, but not to them." Faramir continued. For the first time, his voice was rising.

"The bloods still on your hands. Doesn't matter if it was you or not, you're still killing sentient beings." Daniel countered.

"Only those who have proven they have no respect for life. The Goa'uld care nothing for the philosophy of peace, convincing them to follow these ways is a fools errand. No matter what my elders claim." he all but spat the last part, briefly taking the human aback. "They care only for power and strength. For the sake of all races in the galaxy, they must be extinguished. The Grimm were supposed to ensure that, once they were finished."

Daniel grimaced, sucking in a breath through his teeth. "If I said there was a faction of Goa'uld that believes in coexistence with their hosts, would you still wipe them out?"

"I would have to judge for myself. But if they are as you claim, then they can have the right to live. If they are like your race, they can have the potential to be greater than what they are now. The rest of the Goa'uld do not." Faramir was glowering at the wall, looking away from the humans as he did so.

"Who are you to judge that right?" Ironwood said darkly, clenching his fist.

"The birthright of the Four Great Races." he returned, brow creased. "Four advanced civilizations once coexisted in this galaxy, coming together as equals. Of them, the Ancients died out, the Furlings left in a great exodus thanks to a prophecy of a mad goddess, and the Nox withdrew to Gaia." his head swiveled to the bespectacled man. "Your companion spoke of Loki, and you posses their transporter technology. Do the Asgard still live?"

"Yeah, we wouldn't be here without them. The little guys are in rough shape these days, but they're hanging in there." Daniel nodded, smoothing out a frown. His mental picture of the being's situation was crystallizing into a clear picture, one that was rapidly changing his opinion of the Nox.

Faramir smiled. "Good to hear. I cannot imagine the Asgard dying out without a fight, no matter the odds. I admire their strength to persevere."

The human nodded, letting out a breath when he shoved his hands into his pockets. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume you were exiled, right?"

"Obviously. The elders refused to listen, and our ways kept them from dealing with me. I do not fault the self righteous fools, I challenged their little world too many times to just ignore." he replied dryly. "Pacifism for the sake of pacifism is the height of selfishness when that belief prevents you from saving others from harm. For all their supposed wisdom, the leaders of my race will never admit that."

All eyes returned to the General when he cleared his throat, leveling a dangerous gaze upon the pale man. Briefly rolling his head over his shoulders, he focused his attention on the alien and spoke authoritatively.

"From the information I posses, these Goa'uld are supposed to be quite dangerous. Did that not occur to this 'enlightened' man before me? Surely this Ra character would be intelligent enough to understand you were making a weapon to slay him as well as the rest of his kind." Ironwood questioned, tone dripping with condescension.

"You know little of the Goa'uld mindset." Faramir answered evenly.

"You know less than you think you do." Daniel interrupted, getting both men to glance. "Otherwise you'd know they're crafty. Ra especially, he wasn't the de facto emperor of the Goa'uld for nothing."

"Perhaps." the Nox conceded. "Though you are making the assumption I did not anticipate his betrayal."

"Your arms are scarred, and we found you in a glorified freezer. That's rather telling from my point of view." the bespectacled man said dryly.

"I am still alive, am I not? It is more than can be said for Ra." Faramir replied.

Daniel opened his mouth, but closed it a moment later when he realized what he was getting himself into. Ironwood didn't get that far, exchanging a look with a few of the Airmen who were just as puzzled as he was.

"In any event, I left several contingencies in place in case Ra decided he no longer had a use for me. To start, the planet itself." the Nox gestured at the floor, although few of the humans followed his hands. "Phanes, or Remnant I suppose, was not chosen at random. I engineered the Soulless to have a vulnerability to Dust, merely being in proximity to it can weaken them. This is one of few worlds in the galaxy which has Dust in abundance, affecting them from background contamination alone."

"What else?" Ironwood questioned, his gaze locked on the alien.

"You."

Both men paused. The Airmen flinched when Faramir slowly rose, the being moving deliberately slow so to not provoke them. Once he was upright, he took a second to smooth his robes before he stepped to the humans, not reacting when they reflexively flinched. Nevertheless, he continued forward to the two men in the middle, ignoring the six rifles centered on his torso until he stopped a meter away from the men.

Raising an outstretched arm, Faramir locked eyes with the General. "Your hand please. You have my promise I will not hurt you."

"What do you want?" Ironwood questioned suspiciously, switching his darkened expression from his face to the limb.

"To show you my words are genuine. This will cause you no harm." he soothed, standing in place expectantly.

Frowning, he first glanced to Daniel, who shrugged pensively before reluctantly checking on the Airmen behind him. The General did the same to the ones at his back, catching a short nod from the closest man as he tightened his grip on the M4. Though far from reassured, the help was enough for him to inhale deeply, for a second squeezing his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he slowly lifted his capable hand to the alien's.

The inhuman man traced his hand over the proffered limb, slowly ghosting his fingers over his skin far too close for his liking, seeming to twirl over him rather than touching. Ironwood's discomfort with the act vanished in seconds, when a faint glow seemed to hover a centimeter or two above the points where the alien touched him.

Suddenly jerking his arm back, Ironwood shot the Nox an incredulous look. Only Daniel's frantic waving kept the Airmen from opening fire. Faramir didn't seem to notice, peering at his faintly glowing hand with puzzled interest.

"What...?" the Atlesian got out.

"A few days sickness, causing intense but short lived fevers and some weakness for a week or so. Came to be called the Burning Plague by the slaves. Their Jaffa and Goa'uld masters did not suffer from this disease, not that many wanted to stay on a world their god allowed monsters to claim. The short duration of the sickness kept Ra from destroying the afflicted." he explained idly. He clenched his fingers, making the glow seep from his palm to swirl over the rest of his hand.

Daniel felt his jaw want to hit the floor. "A retrovirus."

"A what?" the Nox glanced to ask, squeezing his hand to dissipate the glow. "Whatever you wish to call it, the end results are the same. Of course." he gave a still shocked Ironwood a wry look. "I expected the slaves to learn how to hide and heal their wounds. Perhaps you have a point Doctor Jackson, I clearly misunderstood the effects my gift would have upon humans."

A series of insistent knocks on the door caught the combined group's attentions, making the immediate trio glance over. A single waving hand was in view of the small plexiglass, a cue for Daniel to clear his throat.

"Well, seems we're done for the moment." he said, starting to place his hands on his hips before stopping. Ironwood likewise smoothed out his features, bringing up a fist to clear his throat.

"I understand." Faramir agreed. The Nox backed away to the far wall once again, sitting down to resume the state they found him in. The entire time, he utterly ignored the weapons pointed at him.

"Anyway, um, do you want anything?" Daniel said lamely, bringing his hands together. More knocks came from the door, faster and more insistent this time. The General was the first to head to the exit, though he clearly wasn't enthused about it.

"I desire many things." Faramir answered, peering to the still uncomfortable Airmen. "But for now, food and water will suffice. If possible however, no meat."

"Right, I'll get on that." he finished, looking over when the door whooshed open.

As if in reverse, the humans filtered out. Ironwood shuffled with Daniel close behind him, while the Airmen edged away in an orderly procession, done in a way to ensure there was a weapon trained on the Nox the whole time. The last man grimaced when the prisoner nodded in acknowledgment, lowering his rifle just as the door sealed shut. When he was alone once more, Faramir closed his eyes and listened.

Outside, the security Airmen finally relaxed a minute degree when the officers gestured, leaving the crowded hallway to the remaining group. Another made the backup leave as well, save for a pair of men who promptly took flanking positions at the door. That done, Daniel and Ironwood faced the assembled party with similar expressions: relief, and befuddlement.

"That was..." Ironwood trailed off, wrinkling his expression in thought.

"Enlightening I suppose." Ozpin suggested, frowning while he supported his weight on the cane.

"Well, its a start anyway." O'Neill commented, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Indeed." Teal'c commented lowly.

"I'm still stuck on the retrovirus origin sirs." Carter admitted, standing at attention yet shifting her weight. "The possibility of the Nox being the foreign DNA source for the BGEF phenomenon-"

"Carter." O'Neill warned.

She quietly cleared her throat. "Auras sir. Anyway, it never occurred to me."

"Both groups are capable of healing grievous injuries." Teal'c noted, for a second flicking his eyes downwards.

"That's a faint connection at best. Our own observations of Aura mechanics and Nox abilities simply don't match. Barring the apparent internal power source, they seem to have nothing in common." she went on.

"Could explain why humans here seem to be quite a bit tougher than the baseline though." Reynolds offered, sending an aside look to the outer edges of the group.

"That's one possibility sir, although I'd hesitate to say it's the only reason. Perhaps its coupled with natural selection." Carter half mused to herself.

"Right. Is no one gonna question the fact a Nox admitted he made a weapon for genocide? Correction, that a Nox made a weapon at all?" Daniel questioned rhetorically, jabbing a thumb to the door.

Pendergast let out a breath as he swept over the group, his eyes lingering on Winter for several seconds longer than necessary. She stood on the periphery with her arms clasped behind her back, stiffly posed and tight faced, as she had been since they teams returned.

"So, what're we going to do with him?" he said at last.

Ironwood and Ozpin exchanged a look, with the former quickly checking on his subordinate. Under his gaze, the woman somehow stiffened further.

"This is unprecedented." Ironwood admitted guardedly to the Earth natives. "You've seen enough of our world to know the impact the Grimm have had on us. And its all due to the man in that room. I'm... I don't know what to do."

"Take him to your world." Ozpin said simply.

For a couple seconds nothing happened, save for everyone present turning to the crippled headmaster. Then comprehension started dawning, with the pale woman especially about to snarl in protest.

A single tap on the floor interrupted any protests. "Don't mistake my suggestion for leniency. Faramir must pay for the crimes against our world, but he has only one life to give."

"Good point." O'Neill said lowly. "No matter what, I say we don't hand him over to the rest of the Nox. That'll be the last we see of him if it happens."

"Agreed sir, though I can only guess how the rest of the Nox would react to his actions." Carter thought aloud. "Nevertheless, he knows the properties of Dust, your people's biologies, and the secrets of the Grimm. It'd be foolish to just throw that away."

"Um, can I remind everyone of something?" Daniel spoke up, brow creased when he twisted to point at the door. "He admitted to wanting to genocide the Goa'uld. The closest thing to a Nox rebel we've met was morally conflicted about hiding a cannon to defend a planet from being attacked. We shouldn't assume he's trustworthy."

"And if Faramir is left in our care, he will be dead by sunrise." Ozpin countered.

Pendergast held up a hand for their attentions. "For now, we'll leave him in the brig. I don't like having him there, but we don't have another option."

"That'll have to do. Least until we can start taking the moon base apart." O'Neill pointed out.

"Its one option sir. He must have research or materials in the facility somewhere." Carter added.

"If Faramir is unwilling to part with his knowledge, then perhaps it can be obtained from the facility instead." Teal'c agreed with a glance to the room.

"I'm tempted to say something like respecting the dead." Daniel commented, but he paused when he saw Carter suddenly clear her throat.

Ironwood frowned. "The very same facility that can only be accessed by your ship."

"Not necessarily sir. We do have a few sets of ring transporters on Earth, we can trade them to you. However." Carter grimaced. "Technicians from Earth will have to be present to help decipher the technology. Sorry to say this sir, but you don't know this stuff like we do."

"Acceptable." Ozpin said, heedless of the glances from his counterparts.

"So, we have an agreement?" Pendergast checked, receiving a variety of nods. "Excellent. In the meantime, I'll forward a message to Stargate Command."

Inside the brig, Faramir opened his eyes at last. The Nox was largely still, waiting on his first bite of food in millennia and pondering his next move.

...

00000

...

When the clanking metal door swung open, two of the three women inside the old room shot up with drawn weapons, or a glowing fireball in the case for one. Seconds after the intruder muscled his way in they relaxed, flopping back to their chairs to glare.

Mercury looked to his comrades and lifted his clattering prize. "Hey, I brought beer."

"Why didn't you knock?" Emerald questioned dangerously, slumping forward in her chair.

"Because beer, that's why." the grey young man pried a can of liquid free from its plastic harness, for a moment holding it out. The green haired woman's rolled eyes were his cue to toss the can, which she caught easily.

That done, he ripped out another to offer to the woman in the red dress. She returned a dry stare. "I can't have those."

"Says who?" he asked with a smile.

"You know who." Cinder answered, holding a wad of cloth over her afflicted arm. When he wagged the can, her eyes narrowed. "I said no."

"The Big Boss isn't here. 'Sides, it's just one." Mercury pressured with a grin, either underestimating the danger or just not caring.

Finally Cinder groaned, and she held out a hand. A second later a can of lukewarm beer landed in her palm.

"Where'd you even get this?" Emerald asked, lifting up her can to check it over.

"Bought it." he replied, prying another can free and setting the rest on a hastily wiped desk. When he turned to his companions, he noticed the pair of dry looks that had settled on him. "I did, seriously."

"Right..." Emerald hummed.

"I bought these, true story. 'Course." he fought down a smirk. "It was the cashier's screwup for not ID'ing me. Don't think the idiot even looked up from his scroll."

The woman huffed to herself, shifting her arm while Mercury grabbed a spare chair. He noticed the last occupant of the room at last, but after realizing her distance from them he shook his head. Lifting her beer, the woman gave the can a long spanning glance.

"Valesian Hills. My favorite." she noted.

"Yep. Figured you'd need a pick me up after everything going on lately." he said, popping the tab on his own can. With a sigh Emerald copied him, her brew hissing in place.

Cinder took a deep breath, and plunged ahead. She popped the small tab, letting the carbonated alcohol ripple; once she hated this brand of childish soda beer, but it grew on her after a string of robberies left them with a hefty supply. A frown crossed her when she tried remembering the last time she had alcohol of any type. Not since her failed mission, at the least.

Sighing, she placed her lips on the metal and tipped her head back, letting the bubbly fluid coarse over her tongue. The sweet yet bitter liquid swirled in her mouth before she swallowed, the woman simply taking in the pops and the faint burn of its passing. Never a hard drinker, she nonetheless enjoyed the buzz on her senses when the alcohol hit her system. It was preferable to the burning aftermath whiskey always gave her.

"It's almost like where back in the good old days. When things weren't this complicated." Emerald mused while she nursed her beer.

"A little yeah." Mercury agreed, his face lighting up. "Hey, remember that one old guy we bumped into during that bank job? That one who could barely walk, but he tried to hit me with his cane? Ah man."

"Oh yeah." a tiny smile graced Emerald's expression, the girl staring at the floor while she drank. "You know, I just thought of something."

"Hmm?" Cinder glanced to her comrade, lowering her can as Mercury picked up.

Emerald sighed wistfully. "The Big Boss said this ring statue thing was a way for old gods to travel."

"Okay?" the two echoed.

"So." Emerald leaned back, smiling to herself. "What if we could figure out how it works?"

At another time Cinder would have snapped at her for saying something that dumb. Had she done it in the castle, she likely would have to physically harm the green haired girl for voicing such an idea. Whatever pain she subjected her to paled in comparison to what Salem would do. But with where they were, she could afford to play nice for a short while.

"Attractive idea." she said, putting down her can. "We somehow figure out how this thing can move stuff from one area to another. Then what?"

Mercury shrugged. "I dunno, go undercover wherever it leads to? Start fresh, a long ways away from all this."

"Yeah. It'd be nice, wouldn't it." Cinder leaned back, taking a short drag of the beer. "Of course, that's assuming this statue is the real deal. And it leads somewhere nice, with friendly gullible people."

"I know, I know. Just thinking out loud." Emerald waved off.

"Would you do it?" Mercury suddenly asked, causing both women to glance at him. "I mean, take the chance to run off somewhere far away? Completely new start."

Cinder allowed a tiny smile. "I can't. Not with this damn Maiden power in me. But if I could, and I can make sure the Big Boss won't track me down? Then sure."

"Yeah." Mercury smiled, sipping his near depleted can.

"Yeah." agreed Emerald, down to the bottom of her own drink.

Cinder stared at the ceiling, letting out a sigh. "Yeah. If only."

A few meters away Neo leaned up to nod in agreement, splayed out on a cleaned desk with one leg hanging over the edge. The entire time, her two colored eyes never left the trio.

...

00000

...

 **A/N: There we go, and it's not obnoxiously long this time. To everyone who favorited and followed NWYE so far, my thanks to you. Review if you don't mind, and thanks for reading.**


	28. Revisiting Old Memories

**A/N: RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth, and Stargate to MGM. Any other mention or reference you spot doesn't belong to me either. There, the required notice is here for everyone to see. Just in case anyone gets the idea that I have any form of ownership, here's a fat sack of NOPE. Profit in any fashion, here's another sack.**

 _ **B/N: I am the one asking the questions that he won't want to add into the fic. For the better. Some though, are helpful. Like the F-15 trade instead of DAMN F-22 or F-35!**_

...

00000

...

Zooming close to the grey cloudscape, the small Bullhead seemed to coast over the vista spreading out in every direction. Far below the VTOL was an uneven canvas of brilliant red trees, a unique forest known to the nearby settlements as Forever Fall. It was a sight worthy of a picture book, even factoring out the periodic clumps of small rocky hills doting the land, and the occasional black mass poking through the tree cover. However, the shade was turning darker with the oncoming autumn, causing the vibrantly shaded trees to bear an uncomfortable resemblance to spilled blood.

At some unknown cue the Bullhead dived, the nose of the small craft dipping towards the ground at an unsafe angle. While the pilot changed directions towards their destination, they apparently forgot to throttle down the engines; the result was the dull grey VTOL finding itself plummeting to the trees with little concern to the oncoming ground. It was as if the pilot wanted to force the trees to yield, or die in a spectacular display of idiocy.

Thirty meters from the forest and the craft lurched, leveling out fast enough to make the frame groan. Now cruising right above the treetops, the Bullhead tilted several degrees to touch the brilliant red foliage flashing by. A small cloud of leaves was dragged along in the wake of the aircraft's passing, not unlike a wave of rippling water. Infrequent black masses poked above the trees when the machine passed by, though none could move fast enough to catch the aircraft.

Closing in on a small mesa, the Bullhead finally ascended several meters to match the outcroppings height, and more importantly, the engines began to weaken. When it was almost on top of the mesa, the craft suddenly rotated its twin engines forward. The entire Bullhead shuddered at the abrupt stop, for a second hovering diagonally above the flattened hill. Just as the backwash started to fling the Bullhead back the way it came, the engines power was throttled down considerably, quickly enough to make the VTOL drop like a brick.

Landing struts deployed when the aircraft was right above the ground, creaking dangerously when the full weight of the machine plus passengers were suddenly placed upon them. Only then did the engines whine start to die down, the frame of the rental airship groaning at the undue stress. The craft seemed to slump at its well deserved rest.

Thirty seconds later the back ramp was lowered, far away from the still roasting hot engine. Not that the heat was a concern to the four people; Ruby scrambled out the door first, catching her foot on a step and tripping. Only a quick roll kept her from face planting on the rocky ground. Out next was Jaune, half staggering as he cleared the way for Pyrrha to shamble after him. Both collapsed to their knees as Weiss shakily left too, the white haired girl willingly dropping to their level to pant. Taking deep breaths, each of the four passengers needed a moment to remember the joys of solid ground.

"Ha, ha, I missed you." Ruby almost weeped, smiling while she came close to kissing the rocky soil.

Weiss rolled so she was sitting upright, inhaling deeply before she checked on her formerly missing friends. "Well, that explains why you used to get airsick."

"You have no idea." Jaune agreed, sucking in a breath before he scratched his neck. "Sorry, I should've tried talking her out of flying."

"Yeah, you should've. Paid out of her own pocket or not, she's not flying us back." Weiss jabbed a finger to get her point across, the limb shaking despite her best attempts to calm down.

"Jaune, I apologize in advance if I Zat your sister. I just don't want her to drive again." Pyrrha shakily told him, supporting her weight on both arms while she softly panted. The blond winced, but he didn't argue with the redhead. What he did do was reflectively pat the black holster from Earth, currently securing one of the alien weapons.

"No wonder Yang and Blake ducked out of this." Ruby said to no one in particular, just stopping herself from flopping onto the dirt.

"Lucky them." Weiss agreed sourly.

...

00000

...

 _Beacon Library..._

Yang felt her eye twitching dangerously, her lilac eyes glaring at her friend.

"You what." she said softly, her quiet tone laden with danger.

Blake winced, grimacing as she sighed. "I'm really sorry. But if I don't go visit my parents, they'll barge into the grounds. I am _not_ letting that happen. It's bad enough they came all the way to Vale just for me."

"You..." Yang warned.

"I'll be back in a few hours, promise. Good luck." the black haired girl turned to dart away, swiftly dodging the watchful eyes of the librarian on her way to the exit.

The blonde shuddered at her passing, scrunching up her features in barely restrained anger. Yang thought long and hard to come up with a good enough excuse to get out of this disrupted study session, forcibly smoothing out her expression when she turned back to the small gaggle of kids nearby. When she agreed to this get together, she thought it was going to be an easy way to add some last minute marks to her grade. Nowhere was Blake running off part of the plan.

Valentine saw her returning and nudged Oscar, waving friendlily while the dark skinned boy feebly did the same. Elise and Erik were still whispering between themselves over something, while Raoul was staring uncomprehendingly at an open physics textbook. While VERE was apparently goofing off, Ron was doing what they were supposed to be doing: cracking open his textbook and writing notes. Already he jotted down a long scribble of indecipherable symbols on a spare paper, which Valentine leaned over to see.

"What's this?" he asked softly, sending a glance towards the watchful librarian.

"Calculating energy fluctuation ranges for an Aesir drive system on maximum output." he answered when Yang flopped into a chair. A second later he paused to look at the blank face staring at him. "Its part of my friend's project, she needed help for some high end stuff."

Valentine leaned back in his seat to raise his brow. "Is it a game or something?"

"An online game?"

"What kind?"

"How much do you have done?"

"Can we play test it?"

Ron lifted a hand to silence the twins. "How about you stop by later to ask her yourselves, I'm sure she'll be there."

As both Elise and Erik slumped, Oscar cleared his throat nervously. He gave the faunus a pensive glance, which Ron waved off before turning to the blonde.

"So, if you guys are good..." Yang trailed off, starting to edge away in preparation of bolting.

Without warning Ron closed his book and stood up, ignoring the alarmed look on his teammate. "I'll be back shortly."

Yang stared blankly at the teen, watching him until he vanished around a bookcase. Then she turned to the dark toned boy with the same judgmental look.

"He, d-does that sometimes." Oscar half stuttered, blushing and squirming in his chair. The boy was trying to simultaneously avoid her hard gaze and peer at her on the sly.

Yang's response was to plant her elbows on the table, so to bury her face in her palms and sigh loudly. The librarian and Raoul shushed at her for the noise.

...

00000

...

Eliane stepped out from the hatch to solid ground, starting to pull her hood up before stopping herself. A grimace remained when she drew her bow, warily scanning their surroundings as the four settled their gazes upon her.

"Are you sick?" she asked flatly, showing faint worry at her party's state.

"No, we're fine. It's just..." Jaune sighed, scratching the back of his neck. Groaning, he planted a hand on the ground to get back on his feet, idly pushing his sword out of the way. Once he was standing he extended a hand to Pyrrha that was quickly accepted, pulling the no longer glum redhead upright.

Ruby had her eyes on the pair while she arose, hiding her frown. Now that she knew what to look for, it seemed so obvious. How they continued holding onto each others hands a moment longer than needed, the way they subtly kept looking at each other, and how their hands hesitantly parted. It was blindingly clear to her, now that she was in the know. At that thought she flicked her gaze to Eliane; the blonde had turned to scan the area, not giving her brother so much as a peek. Idly she wondered if the woman was picking up on their vibe, or how she would react to the news.

Weiss got to her feet and brushed her skirt off, sighing once she was done. The noise got everybody's attentions, each one peering at her for the sound.

"Let's get moving." she said aloud, flashing a grimace. Ruby took a deep breath and drew her weapon, walking languidly towards the small path off the mesa.

"Its this way." she directed, the enthusiasm in her tone noticeably absent.

Hearing the others draw weapons, Ruby lead the way into Forever Fall with everyone trailing in her wake. She kept at a slow pace; half the reason was so no one got lost or left behind, but the remaining portion was for a different purpose entirely. As she glanced over the four people following her to the Stargate, she internally suppressed a tingle crawling up her spine.

"You okay?" Weiss asked concernedly, walking a couple paces behind her with a hand on her swords grip.

Ruby sighed, trying to clear her mind. "I'm fine, just a little nervous."

"Me too." the white toned girl quietly agreed, sparing a guarded look over her shoulder.

Both Pyrrha and Jaune were behind her, the blond exchanging a glance when he saw her expression. His black and silver tinted weapon were in hand, though he needed seconds to realize her eyes were on the holster. Before they left he agreed to the precautionary measure, in case she was overtaken by the otherworldly force again. His brief nod was noticed by the redhead, her own bronze tinted javelin and shield out as they walked. Matching her look, Weiss carefully shook her head. A brief nod was her response.

At the rear Eliane stopped herself from pulling up her hood again, grimacing as she closed in to tap on Jaune's shoulder. He flinched at the unexpected contact, halting his arm before he could bring the shield to bear.

"How much further?" Eliane inquired flatly. Even as she asked, the woman took her eyes off him to scan the forest.

"Um, not much more I think. Ruby?" he said loudly, causing the leader to turn around mid step.

"We're not far." she answered, refocusing ahead on the rocky path. All around them leaves stirred in the faint wind, although the missing sunlight made the endless noises seem more dangerous than comforting.

The red toned girl tensed up at a rustling bush, slowing to a crawl and bringing the business end of her weapon around. Her tension eased away when a small chattering squirrel left the bush, scratching at the ground before darting off. Taking a deep breath, she almost jumped when she heard a _thwack_ behind her, whipping around in sync with the others. A flopping black mass hitting an open patch did make her flinch, until she recognized it as a screeching Nevermore. An arrow was sticking out of its torso, smacking the dirt with its thrashing.

"Oh." went Pyrrha, lowering her javelin in tune with the others.

Eliane strode to the bird to stomp on the small Grimm's head, snatching the projectile from the creatures dissolving flesh and flicking the shaft to get the ash off. Notching her arrow to the bowstring, she turned her level gaze on Ruby. "Are we close?"

"Um, yeah. This way." Ruby began to turn forward, but she paused to glance at her once again. "Next time, can you warn somebody before you do that?"

"Time spent warning you can be better utilized by killing the Grimm." was her reply, looking at her expectantly while she readied her weapon.

Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha swiveled to the lone male in their party, who dropped his head and sighed. "Sorry, this is her normal mode when she's out here."

A little distance later and the forest became sparser, the greater space between trees allowing for more red foliage to flourish. Ruby picked up when she saw the change in scenery, noticing the others doing the same. She recognized this area now; a couple hundred meters away was a large pile of rocks courtesy of the vanquished Geist, and a hundred meters from that was a massive gouge in the dirt from the large Nevermore. And just a little further from both remains was a small cliff face, with caves interspersed on a facing. They had arrived.

"Wait." Jaune said, jogging to Ruby's side. "Look."

He pointed to a spot on the cliff, causing Ruby to raise a brow at the sight. Specifically, a part of the hill looked as if it collapsed in on itself.

"This wasn't here before." Weiss said confusedly, peering at her companions.

"That's not our cave, is it?" Pyrrha asked carefully.

Ruby took off in a light jog towards the facing, outpacing the others without meaning to. Darting up the small hill, she slowed upon approaching the anomaly, roaming her eyes all over the pile of sunken rocks that she knew wasn't present the last time they were here. Now she could see part of the hill had indeed collapsed, creating a long patch of crumpled boulders like a rough gash. The width of the section was approximately twelve meters, while it looked to continue on for another fifteen. An ugly feeling wormed its way into her gut at the sight, while her party jogged to her location.

"We should check the other ones, just in case this isn't it." Jaune suggested carefully, breaking her concentration.

"Yeah." she agreed quickly, sprinting off to the next cave. Jaune took the adjacent one, while Weiss and Pyrrha split to cover the rest.

Ruby peered into a five meter opening, frowning unhappily. She blinked past Jaune in a shower of petals, checking on the next cave, then the one after that, and the one after that. None were a match for the original hiding place for the gate. Finally she leaped to the top of the hill in several lopes, her expression scrunched up in bafflement as she looked it all over yet again. She knew this was the right spot, but why had the cave apparently collapsed?

She rejoined the others at the sunken entrance, darting across the rock pile. But one boulder she stepped on sunk under her weight, causing the girl to squeak in alarm. Her quick blink away was even faster than before, almost slamming her into Weiss before she recovered. Wobbling on her feet, she glanced to the others first.

"We didn't find anything." Pyrrha answered with a puzzled frown.

"Same." Jaune replied.

Weiss opened her mouth, only to be interrupted by a loud crunch of splitting rock. All four whipped around with weapons at the ready, needing a moment to see a bounder cracking apart. It was causing the pile to shift further, apparently settling even as they watched.

"Did it collapse on its own?" Ruby asked herself, lowering her weapon.

"I don't think so." Jaune frowned, raising his eyebrow as he exchanged looks with the others.

"Tracks."

Again the four turned, each one laying their eyes on a crouched Eliane. She was hunched above a patch of dirt, her glove hovering over something on the ground. Jaune took a breath and carefully approached her, waving to the girls to keep them back. She ignored him until he was just a meter away.

"What do you mean?" he asked guardedly.

Eliane lifted her head, swiveling her faintly glowing eyes to the area where Weiss and Pyrrha went. "Footprints. Human, several of them."

"Yeah, we checked there just now. And we were all here a few days ago." Weiss replied uneasily, exchanging a worried look with her friends.

Eliane shook her head. "Not yours. These tracks are fresh, made today."

"Wait, how many?" Jaune asked ahead of the girls, sparing an apologetic look over his shoulder.

"Several. At least six adults, possibly more." she replied, causing everyone to do a double take. Eliane ignored them to peer to something else on the dirt, aimed in the direction of the woods. "There's two sets here, they're different from the rest."

"You sure?" Jaune pressured.

Eliane stood up, dragging her hood down in one smooth motion before taking out her bow. A jerk of her hand transformed it into a sword, facing away from her wary party.

"Stay here, I'll be back shortly." she commanded, suddenly taking off in a bounding sprint.

"Wait Ellie!" Jaune shouted, chasing after her with his hand out. The young man made it as far as the bottom of the hill when she hit the forest, making him sputter to a halt. Features scrunched up in uncertainty, he gulped down a lump and grimaced.

Darting through the leaves, the woman focused most of her attention on the nearly invisible trail she was following. While Eliane did feel bad about leaving her brother behind like that, she needed to track the haphazard route in the forest. Someone crashed through this area with zero regard to paths, smashing branches and bushes alike on their way. Whoever they were, they were quite obviously in a hurry.

Catching a view, she jerked to a halt and backed up, zeroing in on a tree trunk. She dabbed at a wet patch on the bark and gave her fingers a cautious sniff; fresh blood.

Taking off again, Eliane moved slower to scan as much of her surroundings as possible. Her effort was rewarded by more droplets on the leaves and ground, nearly invisible on the red foliage. Pursing her lips, she continued to follow the trail the lone (definitely one now) runner left behind. She could tell they were making no effort to hide their tracks, which meant two possibilities: they didn't know how, or they were in too much of a hurry to bother. The weaving trail and copious blood she found pointed more to the second option. Hearing rustling in the forest, she redoubled her speed.

Until she heard someone.

Pausing, Eliane strained to listen. The sound she detected was faint, yet it was recognizably a voice. Closing her eyes, she took in as much of the ambient noises as she possibly could, trying to home in on the original sound. Her eyes snapped open at a distant cry, and she was rushing to the source as fast as her legs could carry her.

The closer she got the louder the alarmed shouting became, coming from someone in obvious distress. It sounded very much like someone yelling for help, and the reason why became clear when she was almost there. A loud snarl briefly overpowered the yelling human, coming with a cracking sound that made her skin bristle.

Bursting through a bush, she needed a second to take in the situation: a snarling Beowolf was swiping its claws at the ground, trying to slash at a human figure underneath it. The thrashing man was screaming, "Get away from me!" as he kicked and punched and dodged, trying desperately to stave off death for another second. He stood no chance on his own, not unarmed and pinned like he was.

Eliane was swift, darting to the side of the unsuspecting Grimm and thrusting her sword through its neck, cutting off its snarl instantly. A twist of her hand yanked the blade out, nearly beheading the Beowolf as it disintegrated. Sensing movement, she whipped around with the sword transforming to the bow, notching an arrow and sending it flying into the eye of a second Beowolf that had just arrived. Even as it roared at the injury she was letting more fly, choosing to spend arrows instead of leaving the victim alone. Finally the beast collapsed, falling to ash.

Taking shallow breaths, Eliane turned to the man on the ground; while she was occupied he had crawled away in a blind panic, gasping and sputtering with the ash coating his form. Despite his clear terror, the light was returning to his eyes as she approached.

"W-who a-a-are-" the dark skinned man tried fleeing, even as she lowered to a crouch beside him.

"Calm down, you're attracting more." Eliane firmly said, grabbing a fistful of his vest to halt his crawling.

The simple act only served to rile him further. "They're o-out here, t-they-y're af-"

 _Smack_.

His head was jerked to the side, the cheek growing a red welt already. Eliane held the flipped hand in the air, ready to backhand the man in case he needed it. Fortunately the first blow seemed to do the trick, causing him to slump with a loud groan. As he sucked in breath, she took the opportunity to let go of his black vest. Looking him over, she finally took note of his outfit.

When he pushed himself off the ground Eliane backed away, visible surprise flashing over her expression. Though he was still heaving for breath, the uniform clad figure managed to stumble up to sit, supporting himself as he rose to his feet. The polite thing to do would have been to offer a hand, but the hooded woman was too preoccupied by roaming her eyes over his form. In the meantime he was still regaining his bearings, idly brushing the ash off his green clothes.

Once he was standing, the man winced as he slumped. "Thank you, ah, for saving me."

She didn't respond, instead leaning to the side in order to look at his shoulder. Her gaze was drawn to the twin patches stitched onto his sleeve, recognizing both for what they were.

"Okay." he groaned again as he stood up straight, suppressing a grimace at however much pain he was in. "Listen, I need your help. My name is Edward Walsch, I'm-"

"A soldier." Eliane interrupted, hesitantly pulling her hood down.

He blinked; whether it was because of her expression or her answer didn't matter. Gulping, he raised his hands pleadingly. "Y-yeah. I know this is gonna sound unbelievable..."

"You're from another world, called Earth." she said for him, her usual dislike of soldiers being temporarily shoved aside.

Walsch's hands dropped, along with his jaw. "Whah...?"

"Your uniform, you belong to a military order called Stargate Command. Do you know of a man named Jack O'Neill?" Eliane questioned, immediately making his eyes light up.

"Colonel O'Neill? You know where he is?" he said quickly, relief flooding his expression while he jerked forward. She darted back an equal distance, but she had to reply.

"I don't know his location." she began, making him freeze. "But I know how to get in contact with him."

"That's great! Please, you have to-" he almost pleaded, but a cracking branch made him twist around in barely contained terror.

"I'll take you to safety. Follow me." she commanded, starting to turn away with a hand on her hood. But a sudden thought made her look over her shoulder. "Where are the others? Of your unit." she clarified, mostly suppressing the involuntary sneer at the word.

"Others." Walsch repeated, something unidentifiable clouding his eyes as he gulped. "I-its just me."

"Are you sure?" she checked, making him shakily nod.

"They... that thing got... I'm all that's left." he quietly said, swallowing a lump.

"Very well. Stay close to me." she pulled the hood over her head, turning forward to power through the underbrush. Her own feelings were pushed aside, all that mattered now was returning to civilization. After a quick check of her surroundings, Eliane pulled out her scratch coated scroll to type out a quick message to Jaune. _Found injured man, bring bullhead to caves._

"Hey, what's your name?" Walsch asked carefully, the dark toned man wincing as he kept up to her slow pace.

"I am Eliane." she answered in a clipped tone, replacing the scroll to draw her bow. Her head swept over their path, looking for any hint of danger.

"Eliane, nice name. Um, thanks again for saving me." he said in a faux calm tone, mumbling something when his foot caught on a hole. "Are, are you taking me to Beacon?"

"No, we're going to Vale. Now stop talking. You're attracting Grimm too much as is." she chided, frowning at his footsteps crashing through the underbrush. She wasn't about to chastise him further, since a single look showed he was favoring one leg.

Walsch went silent after that, save for his frequent grunting and rare gasps. Truth be told, he was moving like a novice huntsman compared to her exacting stride. It seemed as if every other step he made was landing on a stick or leaf clutter. However, she could tell he was making an effort to keep the noise down, not to mention staying nearby the woman. With his injured leg (he had a bone fracture, that much was clear) it was perhaps the best he could do. That didn't change the fact he was going to be a severe liability when they encountered Grimm, even if he wasn't radiating fear.

Halfway back Eliane suddenly froze. To his credit the Earth man only went a pace further before he caught on, snapping to her with a fearfully curious look. A couple seconds later she heard the noise again, a low concussive thump that seemed to reverberate through the ground.

"Half a kilometer out and closing. We have to move." Eliane said softly, powering ahead with considerably less care as he followed suit.

Her steps picked up when the trees started to clear, though not enough to leave Walsch behind. Nevertheless she gestured for him to hurry up. His lackluster pace was boosted when the ground shook again, and again, and again in a recognizable tempo. Something big was coming their way, and Eliane wanted them gone before it arrived. Were she alone the woman might have considered taking it down herself, but with an injured tagalong in tow fighting the incoming monster just wasn't an option.

The duo burst into clearing in a near sprint, Eliane forcing herself to slow down for the limping Earther. Walsch's pace slowed upon seeing where they were, his widening eyes quickly sweeping the cliff face a short distance away. Grunting in annoyance, she grabbed his arm to jerk him away, eliciting a quick yelp as she forced him to get moving again.

But when she heard a distinctive whine in the air, they both glanced to the sky. Coming over the treetops was the dented Bullhead they arrived in, the VTOL coasting over the trees towards the pair. Just as it slowed to land, a tremendous crash boomed from the far edge of the forest. As they both looked over their shoulders, Eliane heard the Earth man mumble a fearful curse.

She understood why, since Goliaths were uncommon in this region.

The positively giant elephantine Grimm paused at the trees, its massive curved tusks stretching down to scrape at the soil, while its elongated snout wrapped around a large tree trunk. Every step the fifteen story tall Grimm took shook the ground enough to jostle them, not unlike a small quake. The bony mask of the monster, a thick mass of natural armor that could weather a laser cannon, ceased looking over the clearing to focus its gaze upon the humans. Out of all the Grimm she encountered over the years, Eliane was convinced this breed was the most intelligent; its beady eyes shone with malevolent thought, seeming to calculate the speed it would need to catch them.

Hardly minding the gusts whipping at her cloak, the blonde kept her eyes on the Goliath as it pawed at the ground, scraping away a layer of topsoil every time. She waited until she heard the back hatch open, and made her move.

Walsch yelped when she wrapped her arms around him, picking up the man to toss him onto the lowered ramp. Eliane was scrambling after him as fast as possible, not yet fully on the ramp when someone inside shouted for them to move. The Bullhead aggressively lurched, the sudden acceleration almost making her slip off, but the groaning ramp prevented her from falling out. An unexpected dive solved the problem for her, sending the woman tumbling inside. She was distantly aware of a sizable mass disturbing the air close to the VTOL; she assumed the Goliath had thrown something at them.

A pair of hands grabbed her mid slide, the smaller man's mass not enough to completely overcome her own. They both slipped over the rough cabin floor until she hit a seat, eliciting a grunt as she grabbed for anything to hold on to. Her body swayed over the floor as the VTOL weaved, the pilot apparently trying to avoid whatever wanted to harm their aircraft.

Less than a minute passed before the Bullhead leveled out, both she and her savior letting go. Jaune slumped as Eliane sat up, taking a deep breath. Dismissing his raised hand, the blonde glanced to the wounded traveler; she then discovered he was pinned by both Ruby and Pyrrha, the man having apparently landed on the smaller girl's arm. Each one groaned and untangled themselves, while the occupants finally took the chance to examine one another.

"Walsch?!"

The Earth man snapped his head over, raw surprise flashing over his expression before his eyes lit up. Jaune abandoned Eliane to scramble over, grabbing a seat when the Bullhead tilted dangerously. Walsch groaned when he tried sitting up, even with Pyrrha helping him rise. Unmindful of the pilot leaving the cockpit or the red toned girl watching him uneasily, the man lurched to plop a hand on the young man's shoulder.

"Kid, oh my god kid." Walsch said weakly, hesitantly letting go as he slumped against a seat. A pained smile was on the dark skinned man's face, even as he tilted his head back to close his eyes. "I've never been so happy to see your ugly face in my life."

Jaune worked his expression, tuning out the recognition on Weiss' expression or the surprise on Pyrrha, to say nothing of Ruby's confusion or Elaine's quiet hostility. Finally grabbing a seat to steady himself, the blond took a breath.

"Walsch, what are you doing here?" he demanded carefully.

"We were, gah, we came to deliver a set of, ahm, ring transporters. Gr, we were gonna, ah..." the man let out a weak moan, clutching his side as he squeezed his eyes shut. Ruby quickly brought her hands over to help, and a look from Pyrrha had Weiss scrambling to find a first aid kit.

Taking a deep breath, Jaune placed his hand on Walsch's chest and closed his eyes. A faint glow bloomed around his form, which seemed to cascade down his arm to flow onto the Earther. Immediately he gasped, his thrashing requiring the girls to hold him down, allowing for the blond to focus his efforts. As he took shallow breaths, Jaune simply held onto him and let the glow do its thing. A full minute passed before the man's gasping steadied out, light and color seeming to return to his features.

When Jaune let go he clutched the seat tighter, woozy after the experience. In contrast Walsch sat up on his own and blinked, lifting his arms to check himself over. Written all over his face was puzzled disbelief.

"Kid, how'd you do that?" he asked quietly.

Jaune took a raspy breath. "Long story."

"Wait." Weiss said, leaning over a seat. "I remember you. You were one of the soldiers on Cimmeria." she said, ignoring how Eliane glanced to her curiously.

"Yeah, he's part of SG-7." Pyrrha confirmed, switching to the man as he suddenly realized who he was sitting next to. "I thought General Hammond wasn't gating any teams to Remnant?"

"Its..." he suddenly looked away, gulping down a lump.

"Walsch." Jaune spoke up, fighting a wince. "What about the others? Roy, Barnes, Smith? Where are they?"

"He said he was all that was left." Eliane replied, causing Jaune to snap his head over. Eyes wide, he returned to the uniformed man to catch his pained cringe.

"We got ambushed, right outside the gate. Didn't have time to react. Had transponders to beam up, but never got the chance to use 'em." Walsch answered quietly. As the Remnant natives grimaced, he took a shallow gulp of air.

"What was Hammond thinking?" Jaune mumbled, dropping his head to shake. "He knew about the Grimm, that's why he sent the ship. Why'd he..."

Walsch shuddered. "Those... those monsters, how have you people survived here?"

"They're... hang on." Ruby interrupted, placing her small hand on his arm. "You guys didn't know, every time the gate gets turned on the Grimm swarm the place. That's what happened, right?"

The Earth man clenched his eyes shut, then shook his head.

"That wasn't what happened?" Weiss inquired confusedly, switching between the others.

"What? I, I don't understand." the red toned girl pressed, trying a look at Pyrrha for answers, an attempt which came up empty.

"Those things came after, some giant bear thing dragged off the el-tee when we got away. But." he gulped, meeting Jaune's hollow look. "There were people at the Stargate when we arrived Jaune. They were waiting for us."

"People." Jaune repeated. He slumped against a seat with a hollow look, eyes unfocused.

"Yeah, seven or eight of them, couldn't tell for sure. They had these white outfits with masks, they looked like those Grimm things." Walsch began, stopping when all five occupants suddenly locked onto him. Eliane rose, narrowing her gaze at the back hatch.

"The White Fang." she said lowly.

"Whoever they were, they got us right after we arrived. I tried to fight, but." he looked away in shame. "They captured us, and their leader interrogated Smith. He wouldn't tell her anything, no matter what she did."

Pyrrha jerked her head over. "She?"

"Yeah, their leader was a woman. Mid twenties, black hair, bad attitude." he outlined, grimacing.

"Red dress." Ruby said quietly, slowly glancing away while he raised a brow.

"Yeah, how'd you guess?" he asked confusedly. The red toned girl raised her head to meet his eyes, the look on her face making him suddenly leery. She took a tense breath before she spoke.

" _Cinder Fall._ "

...

00000

...

 _Forty five minutes earlier..._

Glancing to the scroll, Cinder compared the ten meter opening in front of her to the image in her hand, courtesy of Neo. They seemed to be a close enough match, but there was no way to know for sure from where she was. The woman huffed to herself, shifting her weight from foot to foot. The yawning entrance before her and her party was hardly what she would term inviting.

Surrounding the woman were seven White Fang operatives, supposedly Hale's best men, each staring at the same thing as her. All the men had either an Atlesian rifle or a sword, and their doubtlessly sneering expressions were hidden by the masks their organization favored. In spite of their quiet hostility to her presence, not one had muttered an insult in earshot; she wasn't sure whether it was professionalism or fear of retribution that kept them behaved, and in the end, she didn't care.

"Light." Cinder said, holding out a hand. Several seconds passed before the closest handed over a flashlight, allowing her to shine the powerful beam into the darkness shrouded opening. She saw nothing inside but rock.

Peering over her shoulder, the woman checked on the dented Bullhead the small group arrived in, parked at the base of the hill. Inside the hold were a number of thick chains and hooks, enough to securely tie a large circular statue to their aircraft. Their objective would definitely hinder the VTOL's performance, but so long as they could get the ten ton craft airborne, she didn't mind in the least. Then there was the matter of refueling, but these men didn't need to know about that problem.

Satisfied for now, Cinder turned forward to take a small breath, striding inside with the White Fang operatives a few paces behind her. Rifle mounted lights flicked on, and one man set up a couple portable floodlights to illuminate the place. Toeing around a long dead glow light, she wondered who all knew about this place, hoping the number wasn't too high. Upon seeing a small altar the woman slowed, her eyes drawn to the array of bizarre symbols surrounding a large crystal in the center. The thought of Emerald taking a fancy to the red hunk crossed her mind, and she made a mental note to keep her from stealing it.

The lights ceased flashing over the dark cave, each one drawn to the same thing Cinder had discovered. The woman couldn't help the feeling of quiet awe when their objective was lit up, trailing her eyes all over the tall ring barely fitting inside the cave. Moving her light over the black statue, she saw the runes etched on the inner circle, and the periodic chevron shapes carved on the outside. Under her breath she counted the symbols, trying to ignore the light strobes distracting her. As well as a feeling in her chest she refused to acknowledge, the unease of disturbing something as old as this object must be.

If Salem was right, then this ring predated mankind; long before she was born, before the Great War, perhaps even before the Gods created Remnant, this thing was here. The black statue practically oozed the weight of the eons, a burden of time easily surpassing even her old master, if the implications of her brief explanation were true. Its presence alone made her feel uncomfortably small.

"How are we gonna move this stupid thing?"

Cinder swiveled to one of the operatives, who was standing slack a couple paces away from her. Mask or not, she could easily tell he was unimpressed with the statue, a sentiment a few of his comrades seemed to share. She made another mental note to kill this one first.

"Yeah, good question." Cinder replied instead, turning back to the ring.

"Tie the chains at the top, park the Bullhead outside, and drag it out. Gonna be risky though, we could break it or collapse the cave." another operative said, giving the stony walls an uncertain look.

"Could we hand move this thing?" another questioned, further towards the back.

"Screw that." the first waved off. "Grab the hammers, we'll haul this thing back in pieces."

Even as she snapped to him, the man turned around to his clearly silenced comrades.

"You wanna put in the full effort for a side job? No thanks. 'Sides, boss lady here didn't say we had to bring it back in one piece." he finished with a jabbed thumb towards the now glowering woman. The temptation to incinerate him was growing by the second, no matter the consequences.

All of that came to a screeching halt when something on the ring clacked.

Cinder backed away, her eyes locked onto one of the chevrons. In the center was an inlaid orange crystal, which was now glowing. As she watched a second chevron clacked over a symbol, lighting up another crystal. At the same time a bizarre charge seemed to fill the air with unseen power. It came as no surprise to the woman that the White Fang operatives were shuffling away from the ring, weapons aimed at the impossibly active statue. She was fighting the impulse to run too.

With that said, she had an uncomfortable premonition of what was to come. A feeling she couldn't understand made her jab her arm at the men. "Get beside the walls!"

As the fifth chevron locked in place, the men hesitantly leapt to towards the cave sides as she directed, and she followed suit. Cinder had just hit the rock when the seventh locked, allowing for the inner ring to bloom with blinding light. A powerful wave of watery energy cascaded out of the center, stealing her breath away at the sight, reaching out several meters before retracting in on itself. In seconds the blast settled into a rippling surface, suspended ninety degrees in the center of the statue. The peaceful rippling was nothing like the gushing power a mere eye blink ago.

Cinder was barely aware of the men's mumbled cursing, all of her attention fixated upon the truly otherworldly display she just witnessed; the quiet doubt she carried from Salem's tale was swept away, she knew now her master was telling the truth. What she was seeing was old magic, the likes of which made her own abilities seem trivial. A strange idea crossed her mind, from recalling Emerald's words last night. What if she learned to harness this power for herself?

Again her thoughts came to an abrupt stop, this time at something she wasn't anticipating in any way: from the rippling surface a human figure plopped out, striding away from the watery glow without a care in the world. In seconds three more joined him, the men clad in dark green making it several paces before realizing they weren't alone.

Whatever her feelings on the bizarre event, Cinder retained enough mind to bellow an order to the White Fang. "Take them alive!"

Gunfire boomed in the small cave, from the electric crackles of the Atlesian rifles and the much faster pops of the arrival's weapons. When the ring suddenly went dark, the fire created blinding flashes in the darkness, stinging at her vision even as bullets whistled right by her. A couple stray rounds bounced off her Aura, making her grimace at the unexpected blows.

In the end though, the White Fang had the advantages in this encounter, and in seconds it was over. Several cries of pain echoed in the cave from both sides, seemingly quiet compared to the deafening gunfire a moment prior. Breathing heavily, Cinder grabbed her flashlight to sweep over the tiny space, catching one operative clicking the floodlights on.

She didn't have to tell the men to disarm the arrivals, going over the men's equipment and setting them aside, with a couple slinging their blocky weapons over their chests. Nor did she have to tell them to line up the prisoners, forcing the resisting onto their knees in a neat line, while a man held onto them from the backs. The rest took up positions around them with weapons trained on the four green clad men, sparing a look at a lone White Fang operative splayed out on the ground; his shirt was splattered in blood, and he wasn't breathing.

Cinder strolled up to the four arrivals, for a moment glossing over the restrained fear on their expressions, focusing instead on their outfits. Green encompassing uniforms, black vests, and a couple cap like hats the faunus ripped away, each man sporting several pieces of unidentifiable equipment on their bodies, all tossed into a small pile. One of the men had a growing mass of blood on his stomach, making his breathing hitch. Her eyes fell on a gun one faunus looped around his torso, raising a brow at the black and orange weapon.

 _Soldiers_ , she thought with quiet surprise, snatching up a black colored block with an earpiece sticking out the top. They were clearly military men, but a single look at them told her they weren't from Atlas. So who were they?

Setting her features into a hard line, Cinder stood before the prisoners. "Which one of you is in charge?"

Silence came from the men, largely from contained fear. But one was different; he was older, in his late thirties by her reckoning, but most importantly, he was staring at her defiantly. Every move she made he tracked, as if sizing her up. This one she moved in front of, mustering a coy grin.

"You. What's your name?" she said softly. Though her tone was soothing, the predatory smile on her features betrayed her intentions.

He took measured breaths, matching her golden eyes with plain brown ones. "Major John Smith, United States Air Force. Serial number two nine five six zero."

"Good enough." Cinder replied, catching a couple of the Operatives glancing to one other. "Now, I'm going to ask you a few questions. Understood?"

"Major John Smith, United States Air Force. Serial number two nine five six zero."

"I get the point." she dropped her smile, narrowing her gaze.

"Major John Smith, United States Air Force. Serial number two nine five six zero-"

 _Smack_. Cinder kept her hand in midair, noting the rest of the team watching him recover from the slap. Giving his head a brief shake, he returned to the same look as before, seemingly ignoring the pulsing welt on his face.

"I'm gonna ask you one more time. Answer my questions." she said lowly, dropping her smile.

The man tilted his head to the side, cracking his neck. "Major John Smith, United States Air Force. Serial number two nine-"

He gurgled, from Cinder roughly grabbing his throat. Features twisted into a scowl, she had to force herself to loosen her grip ever so slightly, all while he continued his defiant stare. It hadn't wavered at all despite the hand clutching his windpipe. If anything, his eyes narrowed dangerously. Shoving him into his captor, she leveled out her breathing as he steadied himself, needing a moment to return to his fearless staring.

"Now that I've made my point, are you going to cooperate?" Cinder questioned dangerously.

Smith harrumphed. "Amateur."

For a second she was silenced, needing time to process the simple reply. The operatives were similarly lost, as well as the man's puzzled team.

"Excuse me?" she almost mumbled, deepening into a snarl.

"This isn't the first time I've been interrogated. Credit for not starting with violence, but what you did right ends there." Smith explained flatly, sounding almost bored. "You're keeping all your prisoners in one spot so you can't isolate them for weaknesses, you're not trusting in your guards to keep your captives secured, and you're making no attempts at incentivizing any of us for intel. I'd call you lazy if I were feeling charitable." he finished with a shrug, which his stunned captor allowed. "More likely though, you're a rank amateur."

"Amateur." Cinder quietly repeated. "So you have anti-torture training."

"Couldn't pass without keeping a secret for at least three days under prolonged interrogation. Judging from your behavior thus far, you're either gonna hand us over to someone who actually knows what they're doing, or go at yourself. In which case, you're going to botch it." Smith concluded.

The woman tipped her head back. "Confident, aren't you? Allow me to correct you on one assumption."

Instead of raising a hand, Cinder glanced to the last prisoner far end of the row, squinting a little at a small name tag stitched onto his breast pocket. Roy Harris it said. She nodded to the operative behind the man, undoubtedly making him grin. In one smooth motion he drew a knife to plant it on the human's throat.

Smith's hard countenance fractured, his breath catching in an undignified hiccup. He was still, his eyes latched onto his teammate as he collapsed face first onto the hard ground. The two others started to thrash, requiring the guards to force them still. All the while Cinder smirked, hiding her anger at the operative going farther than she wanted.

"I have two more tries before I start removing your fingers. What's it gonna be?" she asked easily, watching him snap his furious expression towards her.

Taking deep breaths, Smith visibly calmed himself, though the hate in his eyes wasn't dissipating. "Let my team go, and I'll do whatever you say."

"I would, but I need leverage to make you tell the truth." Cinder replied, smirking at his twitch.

"Alright." he almost whispered, his eyes flickering to the black statue. His men glanced to him, one quaking in fear, the other shaking yet reasonably calm. His simple nod to them somehow made the pair calm down a minute degree.

"First off, where did you come from?" Cinder began, aware of the effect he was having on the duo. Mentally she considered splitting them up to wring them for information, per his helpful advice.

"We're from a nation called the United States of Helium, its on another world called Barsoom." Smith answered flatly, making the wounded man shoot him an incredulous look. "We're explorers and charters, contacting other planets to arrange for trade and alliances."

"Barsoom." Cinder repeated softly, committing the name to memory.

"Its the eighth planet in the solar system, compared to your third. Technically speaking, your actions are grounds for war between our worlds." he threatened in a calm tone.

One of the operatives snorted. "He's full of shit."

Cinder didn't rise to the bait. She could tell Smith was lying, but even in lies she could find useful information.

"How did you get here then?" she probed.

Smith nodded to the black statue, though she only glanced away for a second. "That ring is called a Bifrost. It connects planets together by means of Ancient magic, allowing for instantaneous transportation from one end to another. A previous expedition placed it here a hundred years ago for eventual travel to this place."

"Really." she murmured, the corners of her mouth rising. "How do you make it work?"

"Not telling." he answered immediately.

"You sure?" Cinder asked, gesturing at the next man in the row. The guard jerked the struggling prisoner's head back, exposing his throat for all to see. "If you insist, maybe these two will be happy to share what they know. If not..."

Smith grimaced, grinding his teeth together. "Fine."

Another gesture flopped the victim's head down, while the operative dragged Smith to his feet. Waving them on, the guard had to drag him across the rocky ground, since he refused to walk on his own. On a hunch she led them to the decorated altar, forcing him in front of the black display.

"I need my hands." he said lowly.

"Yeah right." his handler snorted, the woman recognizing the voice as the disrespectful one from earlier.

"You're free to screw it up yourself." he shot back.

Cinder waved him off, earning a masked scowl from the faunus. Nevertheless he did relax his grip enough to free the human's arms, grumbling to himself as he briefly flexed.

"To start with, you need to input the correct code to reach Barsoom-"

"Where else does it lead?" she interrupted, causing the grip on him to tighten.

He took a low breath. "It leads to many places, but most of those aren't charted out. The only viable option available to you is a place called Earth. They're friendly enough people, protected by old gods called the Asgard."

"Good enough." Cinder nodded, her eyes on his hands. She was willing to lay money on him trying for his home, hence why she decided to hedge her bets. "Open the Bifrost, but those two are staying here for now." she pointed to the remaining teammates.

"Alright." he flexed his arms for a moment, hovering his hand over the altar. She glanced towards the ring expectantly, anticipating the shockwave from the thing's activation.

The ceiling suddenly creaked, making a short lived cloud of dirt fall like rain. Snapping her head up, she realized it wasn't a natural event; something large was on the roof above their heads. From outside the cave the sounds of gunfire crackled, an uneven serenade aimed at whatever was bearing down on their Bullhead. Despite their leader's orders, two of the guards holding the prisoners darted outside to help their comrades, leaving only a pair of rifle armed operatives behind.

While they were occupied Smith hit the red crystal in the center, creating a powerful glow which immediately blossomed out into the same reaching gush as before. Just as he did so Smith grabbed the guard's arm, making the man yelp as he shoved him towards the bloom. Cinder saw the operative fall into the watery cascade, but when it drew back there was nothing left of him. Nothing but a pair of cauterized feet flopping onto the ground.

A weight slammed into her, dragging them both to the ground in a thrashing heap. Snarling in surprise, Cinder shoved him off hard enough to flop away, scrambling upwards with a scowl. Barely aware of the remaining men bolting over, she moved over to the fallen man facing away from them with murder on her thoughts.

"You're gonna pay for that." Cinder threatened, grabbing an arm to flip him over. She took one look at the dark grin on his face and paused, just in time for him to raise a pair of egg shaped objects in his grip. A twitch of his thumbs popped something, sending a couple pins flopping away.

Cinder was up and blowing past the now shouting guards in an instant, glossing over the remaining prisoners escaping. She almost made it to the cave mouth when the grenades blew, the back gust propelling her the last couple meters out. Cinder felt rather than heard the collapsing rocks at her back, bouncing twice before landing in a scrambling heap. The air in her lungs was forced out, the woman gasping as she rolled to a stop.

Grunting, she propped herself up to glance to what was almost her tomb. Breathing heavily, she took one look at the rock pile settling in place, sinking in on itself even as she watched, and knew she was finished here. The massive form of a King Taijitu rising up from behind the hill was incentive she didn't need. Neither was the hulking forms of several Ursa surrounding her, blocking the woman from her escape route. A year ago and she would've been in severe trouble at her current situation, but that was then.

The Bullhead was starting to pull away when Cinder reached it, drawing on her reserves of power to fling herself towards the escaping craft over the heads of the thrashing monsters. Below her was a growing number of lesser Grimm, the many beasts leaving the forest in a tide of claws and snapping mouths. Dragging herself into the VTOL, the woman risked a peek at the black mass chasing the aircraft as it pulled away, leaving them in the dust.

Letting out a shaky breath, Cinder flopped into a seat as the hatch closed, ignoring the few White Fang operatives shakily collapsing. Her head tipped back as she heaved, less from effort and more due to the situation that spiraled out of control so fast. In the end, she was down several useful pawns and had nothing to show for it.

A crackle from her belt made her shoot up, pawing at her waist until she withdrew the source. Staring at the black object confusedly, Cinder heard it make another insistent noise. Breathing heavily, she took the small piece on the top and placed it to her ear, fumbling with the buttons on the side. After a couple seconds, she heard an unfamiliar female voice.

" _-Golf Zero Seven, how copy? This is Chariot Actual to Sierra Golf Zero Seven, respond. You are overdue for contact, acknowledge?_ "


	29. Breaking Down

Cradling the small device in her hand, Cinder tuned out everything in the vicinity. She ignored Hale's furious ranting, the dusty air, the smirking girl leaning on the wall, all of it. From the dirt strewn floor below to the dim lights above, nothing registered to the woman. Nothing but the small plug in her ear mattered right now, her drive for information causing her to disregard the man she was insistently pushed towards a short while ago.

"I sent nine men for your little excursion, and you came back with four. Four!" Burgundy Hale smashed a fist onto the desk, his glaring expression beet red. Her lack of a response made him snarl, staring daggers into his now unwelcome guest.

Of course the thick faunus was downright livid, who wouldn't be after returning with a fraction of the team they left with, not to mention empty handed. Ordinarily Cinder would've been willing to match his shouting tit for tat, knowing she could afford to burn her bridges with this arrogant man. Morality aside, she could kill him with next to no effort then saunter out, and there was precious little anyone in this camp could do to stop her. Losing an ally didn't matter, so long as his master was still on her faction's side in the end.

"This is inexcusable!"

But instead of entering a screaming match that would certainly end with the fool's head on a platter, she barely said a word. All she did was come to his office, apparently after his subordinates gave their version of the day's events, and play with her new prize. Her indifference was causing him to get even more frustrated, especially since she showed no sign of caring about the failed mission. All his ranting landed on deaf ears, or occupied ones rather.

Pressing the ribbed dial to the side, Cinder winced at a blast of static, adjusting it back to the previous setting post haste. She cursed under her breath when she heard staticky silence again, instead of that probing voice from earlier. It had gone quiet an hour ago, and no matter how closely she listened it didn't resume. She craved more information, but the calm speaker wasn't forthcoming with anything when they were on, let alone now.

"I'm talking to you!"

 _Sierra Golf. But he called it a Bifrost_ , she thought, feeling a grimace at the information. The man was certainly lying, that much was clear at the time, but now she had to sort through his statements for grains of the truth.

The two words in particular were possibly a code name, but the real answer was something she couldn't figure out. She could make several guesses however. For starters, Golf likely stood for Gate; she based her assumption (knowing that was all it really was) on his description of moving from one end to another. Sierra however was vexing her, since she couldn't think of a decent sounding match. Sequence Gate, Soul Gate, Star Gate, Slip Gate, there were any number of possibilities.

But in the end, the meanings were a side issue. What her thoughts kept returning to was later on, once the chatter for Zero Seven ceased. When others had contacted Chariot.

" _Roger Two Five, we read you... Copy, One Niner is inbound with medical team, standby._ " went the memorized phrase, committed to memory when she heard it. As before, the female speaker held the same business like tone soldiers often used, which again brought the same question as in the cave: who were they?

She didn't hear whoever summoned this Chariot (an airship of some kind perhaps? Then how did it fly six planets over? How'd it fly in space at all?), no matter how closely she listened. Her running theory was the radios had a very short range, and Chariot had equipment sensitive enough to pick up on their signal. Which meant if she wanted to intercept the speaker, she needed to head into Vale proper to scour the city. Cinder knew just where to start, even knowing the considerable risks involved in getting close to Beacon again. This was the sum total of her viable options; clicking the tiny button to reply certainly wasn't something she was risking.

"Are you even listening?!" Hale snarled indignantly.

Finally noticing his red face, Cinder unplugged the earpiece and stuffed the device in her pocket, rising from the wall to face him. The thought of killing him crossed her mind again, but she dismissed it just as fast as it formed. He could still have a use to her, for now anyway.

"You're mad, I understand that." she replied evenly.

"Mad? I'm _pissed_." he snapped. "You got five of my men killed for what? Some statue in the woods, which you ended up destroying."

"Did you miss the part where we had a patrol stumble on us?" she questioned, crossing her arms. Sparing a glance at Neo, she mustered an irritated stare at the girl watching her bemusedly. "Or the giant horde of Grimm swarming the place?"

"That's no excuse. My men took every precaution, you were the one to screw things up." Hale growled, jabbing a finger. "Pals with Taurus or not, you're not sticking around here any longer. Come crawling back and I'll have you shot."

Rather than intimidation, Cinder felt dry indifference to his threat. The fact he obviously wasn't going to attack her himself said so much about his personality, and her mental assessment of him dropped further. Nevertheless, she dropped her arms.

"I can safely declare our business agreement null and..." she trailed off, her creased brow rising. She glanced to her arm; while her ears didn't detect anything unusual, she could still hear the Grimm patch making noise seemingly inside of her, a quiet humming that meant only one thing.

Hale's scowl suddenly dropped, the heavyset faunus jerking back. Even Neo picked up, planting a hand on her parasol as she shrank back. Cinder knew why, even before she heard the thick plops of something coming from the door.

Taking a shuddering breath, the woman slowly turned around to the now unlit entrance, seeing the cause; a massive Ursa lumbered through the door, the monster panting deeply as it glared at the people. Yet it didn't attack, choosing to clear the opening for the next few arrivals. She took an involuntary step back at the several tiny serpent Grimm slithering after the Ursa, as if it they were going over the dirty office looking for danger. Both they and the bear audibly growled at the residents, ignoring the Maiden entirely.

Next through the door came an overpowering presence, the mere sight of which stifled the atmosphere within the suddenly tiny room. Cinder's legs became rubbery at the impossible sight of the being entering her view, snorting in displeasure at being forced to stoop down to avoid the roof. Even so, her braided white hair scrapped against the top before she seemed to glide into the room proper. Giving the two others an appraising look, the towering woman affixed her black gaze upon her servant.

"Cinder." Salem greeted perfunctorily, staring down on her with measured coldness.

"I-ah-ah." the woman stuttered at the impossible, all but recoiling. Her master never left the Castle, ever. She commanded her pawns from afar, only ever communicating remotely or summoning the inner circle to her side.

"I am aware of the circumstances. But the situation is direr than you can know, Hazel and Watts are too far away to respond in time in my steed. If there were any other options, I would have chosen them." she offered flatly, as if reading her thoughts. Given the conditions she imposed, Cinder wasn't going to be surprised if that were the case.

"Ah..." she clamped her mouth shut, sparing a nervous look at her master's form. The dark mistress was capable of projecting herself from afar, even retaining a portion of her powers. But this was no illusion; Salem was here in the unholy flesh.

"Now, I sent you to retrieve the Ring. Where is it?" she questioned expectantly, her unblinking gaze fixated upon the woman.

Cinder gulped. "It-it's buried. We had to-"

"You failed me. _Again_." Salem interrupted, the air chilling significantly. The woman expected a lance of pain, but instead her master simply inclined her head back, her dark gaze firmly locked into her petrified servant. "You know where it is, correct?"

"Y-yeah." she nodded quickly, sweat dripping off her brow.

"Have you anything else to tell me?" her voice was dangerously cold, the Grimm visibly hackling in response.

Cinder worked her jaw, forcing her mouth shut before she could speak. "Before we... the thing turned on."

"Did it?" went her dry response, but she could see the rising interest in her tone.

"Y-yes. There was some water stuff, and, and, people came out. They said they were from another world." she managed to stand up straight, but the quiver in her form was impossible to suppress.

When Salem went silent, Cinder's shaking hand dug into her pocket for a moment, withdrawing the radio she took in the cave. Without a word she held the device out, stopping a grimace at a serpent crawling off the master's arm to snag it from her grip, bringing the radio to the master's hand. She held the small block up to the light, as if appraising it. When her thumb hit a button on the side, a brief crackle of static echoed in the room, causing the humans and faunus alike to involuntary flinch.

"So its true." she said simply, tossing it back to the woman without looking. "Her claims were right after all."

"I-" Cinder tried to ask, only for the woman's cold gaze to silence her once more.

"What else?" she inquired, her tone making it clear she was demanding.

"I-I... I think there's others like the travelers in Vale. I was about to go inves-" Cinder was cut off by a raised hand, the dark being briefly turning away to scowl.

Raising her head once more, a dangerous glare overtook her expression. "The situation has changed. We have to strike while we still can, or else Ozpin's new allies will destroy us all. There will not be another chance."

"But-"

"Time is not on our side, secrecy is no longer important. It is now, or never." Salem turned her head, catching a shivering Hale under her visage. "You have an army. I require it immediately."

The thick faunus visibly gulped, but he found the strength of will to stand tall in the face of Salem. Cinder realized he had no idea what he was up against, unaware anything other than unquestioning obedience would cost him his life. For a second she wondered if he would try talking down to her, using the superiority rhetoric the White Fang loved to preach. Such an attitude would earn him an especially grisly death, particularly if she fed him to the cursed beast in the Castle's deepest dungeon; the last time that reptilian monster roamed the lands, entire towns perished in a day's time. Cinder didn't know where it came from, and she never worked up the courage to ask.

"T-t-that can't b-be done." he choked out, bringing his shaking arms up to chest level. "T-the troops aren't trained, equipment and munitions aren't stockpiled and we need reinforcementsfortheplan-" he spoke faster and faster, voice rising in pitch due to him hyperventilating.

She inclined her head back, calmly appraising the man's words. In a sharp contrast he was clearly searching for a quick exit, sweating profusely at the power radiating off the being.

"You require additional support? Then you shall have it. At dawn we attack." Salem ordered, turning from the near collapsing faunus to the mute girl; Neo was shaking when she lifted her arms plaintively, her breath coming out in quick pants. Nodding in acknowledgment, she turned to the Maiden. "Your chance for redemption is here Cinder. Now rest, by noon tomorrow Beacon will be aflame. When we are finished here, I will personally retrieve the ring."

Salem glided away, heedless of the hollow look her servant now sported. Cinder caught a sidelong glimpse of her master's expression, her spine crawling at the thin grin she now had. It was rare that she smiled like that, and never was it a good thing. As she left through the door with the Grimm obediently trailing after her, one last statement floated back to the mortals.

"Soon, all realms will know the wrath of the Grimm."

...

00000

...

"Okay, anything else to add?" nodded O'Neill, arms folded and unsmiling.

"That is all." Eliane told him, sparing a look at the others in the corner.

"Yeah." Ruby agreed, averting her eyes once she finished speaking. The small girl sighed, halting a rush of anger.

Her voice echoed faintly in the small hangar, currently holding one Bullhead in need of maintenance and nine occupants; sitting on a crate was Walsch, grimacing as a pair of medics went over him yet again, diligently tending to his nonexistent injuries. Nearby stood O'Neill and Carter, listening to his report of events, and the girls' input of what occurred. Eliane told them of the events in the forest, while Ruby filled them in on the perpetrators. Carter was grimacing when she asked questions, while O'Neill was stone faced.

Just a few meters away stood the rest, who had already told the officers all they knew. Weiss was fighting a grimace as she stood with her arms by her side, and Pyrrha kept stealing glances to her flank. Every time she checked on Jaune he was the same; the hollow look wasn't changing, his eyes unfocused in thought while Nora's hastily retrieved radio was in his grip still. She wanted to console him, but thanks to SG-1's presence she couldn't.

"Alrighty then. Looks like Ozpin and I have a long discussion ahead of us." O'Neill said, a flash of something dangerous crossing his expression when he lowered his arms.

"Thank you for rescuing him." Carter told the women, turning to gesture at the Airmen. The three duly abandoned the crates to plod over, as O'Neill spoke into a radio.

For a moment Eliane stayed where she was, keeping her dry yet inquisitive expression on the Earthers, until she yanked her arm out of the way. Ruby withdrew her hands, but she still gestured for her to get back, grimacing unhappily. With a huff the blonde backed up several paces so to grant them space. She didn't respond to Walsch peering at her, nor him mouthing another line of gratitude towards the sister of his former teammate.

As the group clustered together, O'Neill finally glanced to the Airmen standing apart from his group; both picked up under his gaze, and with a sullen breath he waved them off. Just as the two started to raise their hands for a salute, there was a flash of white light, and they were gone.

With their absence, the tension flowed out of all three bystanders. Weiss and Pyrrha were almost identical, the women peering to the duo rejoining them.

"So, what do we do now?" the white haired girl prompted, noting Jaune backing towards a crate, avoiding their gazes.

"We wait." Pyrrha said quietly, causing her friends to glance at her sharply.

"We're just gonna let this go?" Ruby demanded.

"Not what I meant." she corrected, frowning. "When the time comes we'll have a role to play, but for now its out of our hands."

"I would've figured you'd be running after them by now." Weiss said, sharing her expression.

Pyrrha sighed. "I want to, but this isn't our call. Colonel O'Neill will get this sorted out, I'm sure of it."

"You're trusting the authority of a soldier." Eliane noted flatly, creasing her brow at the redhead. "Even though they have remote operated point to point matter transportation technology completely unrelated to semblances, this doesn't change what they are. No matter how much I wish to examine the mechanism responsible, they are still thugs for their state. No better than machines."

Weiss cleared her throat before she could speak. "Weren't you and O'Neill on great terms?"

"In a private function yes. But professionally speaking, his ways and ours are diametrically opposed to one another. I don't understand how you can forget that. Although I can make an educated guess." Eliane explained flatly, the last part making the white haired girl bristle.

"This isn't helping." Ruby said loudly, forestalling an argument. "We shouldn't wait around for someone to figure this out, not when we can do something ourselves. Now Ell-Eliane." she corrected herself mid sentence, turning to the older blonde. "You're a good tracker, we're gonna need you to help find the White Fang."

"Wait, Ruby." Pyrrha started to protest, Weiss' expression mirroring hers.

"No."

"After that, we can... wait." the red huntress trailed off, lowering her arm to gape in bafflement. "Hang on, what do you mean no?"

"Cinder Fall is involved with this group. Your team isn't ready to face her, let alone my brother's." she explained, blank faced at the indignant look Pyrrha shot her, as well as Jaune twisting his head over. "She is beyond my skills, so I can't fight her alone. If JNPR were trained to your level I would consider it. As is, the most you're going to accomplish is getting yourselves killed."

"That's it?" Weiss butted in.

"This is why, yes." the blonde nodded. "This is forgetting the issue of locating her and her group in the first place, which requires far more work than simply tracking footprints. I can't help you."

"We can handle them." Ruby insisted, brow creased and ignoring the uncertain looks on her friends.

"No, you can't. I lost my brother once, he's not dying for something this foolish." the blonde calmly retorted.

A snort from Jaune caught all four women's attentions, each once glancing to the young man. His head was dropped, but a weak shudder was plainly visible in his form. Gulping, he picked up to look at them, his expression flickering.

"I need some air." he said quietly, before powering to the exit.

"Wait, Jaune." Pyrrha raised a hand, worry crossing her expression. She pursued him, causing two of the girls to sigh and follow suit, while the last allowed a frown to cross her expression.

Throwing the door open, Jaune nearly smacked Nora right outside, the orange haired girl hastily jerking back just in time. Just as soon as she dodged the ginger was closing in, lifting her hands to fret. Confusion flickered when her friend barged past her without slowing down, which was turned upon those after him.

"Out of our hands for now." Pyrrha said quickly, frowning as she powered past her. Ren was coming back from his perimeter check, while Blake and Yang were a few paces behind. The girls were out of breath, from abandoning what they were doing just half an hour previously. When they rejoined the group, all three grimaced at Nora's shaking head.

Jaune left the hangar behind, head dropped as he crossed the small airport. Head dropped, his feet took him towards a row of warehouses on the edge of the field, fighting a grimace an entire time. He barely noticed his friends' worried looks or the pair tailing him, he was too absorbed in his thoughts to do more than walk to an unoccupied spot. His breathing was shallow yet steady, the young man forcing down his rising emotions as he traversed the empty space.

Stopping by the side of a building, he let out a breath as he slammed his back against a wall, bringing up his hands to clutch his face. Running his palms down, he gritted his teeth while he grimaced, sparing a look towards the sword which was scraping on the siding. Although his breathing was leveling out, the pained look on his face wasn't fading. A chilled breeze swept by him, causing an involuntary shiver for as long as it lasted.

Detecting movement, he flopped his head towards the two women coming to a stop by him. Pyrrha was grimacing too, raising a hand plaintively.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked worriedly, toeing closer until she was almost in arms reach.

"I'm fine." he said quietly, not meeting her gaze. One look at his downcast expression revealed that as a lie.

"Listen to me. It's not your fault." the redhead tried to sooth, only for him to snort.

"Smiths gone. He shouldn't have..." he took a shuddering breath, dropping his head. "I could've done something. Hammond knew better than to send anybody by Stargate because of the Grimm, but he..." Jaune clenched a fist. "If only we were there..."

"What could we have done?" Pyrrha stopped in front of him, pausing until he lifted his head. "We didn't know they were coming at all. You heard Walsch, the whole team had beaming transponders, they thought it was safe enough. Nobody could've predicted an ambush right outside the gate."

"Somebody on the ship should've told us to-" Jaune's rising tone was cut off by Pyrrha touching his shoulder, the blond giving her arm a look before going to her face.

"It's alright." Though clearly upset as well, the redhead found the strength to muster a thin smile. "O'Neill is on it right now. They're going to find the ones responsible and deal with them, just you wait."

"Unlikely."

Both glanced to the last one present, who had her arms by her side and hood down. With a quiet sigh Pyrrha withdrew her hand, allowing Jaune to face his sister fully.

"The White Fang are little more than glorified bandits, it would be impossible to find the perpetrators. The organization will suffer where the law can reach them, but the ones who attacked the Earth soldiers will most likely not be caught." Eliane told them flatly.

"There's a lot at stake here Ellie, the Kingdoms will have to find them if they want an alliance with Earth." he replied carefully, forcing back a scowl.

"You mean an alliance with the nation Stargate Command belongs to, this United States. One kingdom doesn't equal a planet." she corrected, this time causing Pyrrha to grimace too. "O'Neill told me this. An organization such as this should be operated by an international body, not under the unilateral control of a military power."

"It's not that simple Ellie." Jaune said tightly. By his side the young man formed a fist, catching the redhead's attention.

"I see no reason why it shouldn't be. But that's not your problem anymore." Eliane told them, idly cracking her neck.

"It is." he insisted, his tone darkening. "Those men were my friends."

"Soldiers Jaune, you knew better than to associate with those drones." she replied simply, bringing her arms up to clutch her elbows.

"I don't care, I owe them this much." he countered, a scowl overcoming his expression.

"You owe them nothing." Eliane's voice dropped an octave. "You're a huntsman Jaune, don't concern yourself with them."

"Did you not just hear me?" he snapped, not registering Pyrrha's flinch.

"I heard you mistaking your priorities. Your team are the ones you should give your loyalties to." The blonde's voice was steady, but anger was creeping into her tone.

"This isn't the time for this." Pyrrha said loudly, glancing worriedly between them. But neither listened.

Jaune gritted his teeth. "So explain to me why your team kicked you out."

"That is a separate matter." Eliane said coldly. "You should never have gotten involved into those soldiers affairs."

"I volunteered, remember? Weren't you listening to me when I said what's out there?" he questioned sharply.

"I did, and I'm not convinced. O'Neill said himself, you should never have gotten involved in Stargate Command's business." she calmly retorted. "Our family have been huntsmen for five generations. Your dalliance with those people is an insult to the Arc name, especially for the powers who convinced you to join them."

"Well I did anyway." he flopped his arms, glaring. "You think I don't know it was a political move?" he preempted her opening mouth. "I knew we were just walking blackmail, but I still did the best I could, for everyone."

Eliane creased her brow. "You knew better, its beneath you."

"No it's not!" Jaune shouted, briefly taking both girls aback.

Now wide eyed, Pyrrha raised a hand to reach towards him, but he didn't even see her.

"They thought I was weak, I thought I didn't belong there. Well guess what, they were wrong. I fought alongside them, as an equal." the blond was panting, fists curled as he glared. "I did more alongside those men then I ever would've accomplished here. You can't see that, because then you'd have to admit you're not so high and mighty."

"Excuse me?" Eliane narrowed her gaze, returning his glare.

"I don't care what you say Ellie, and don't call them machines anymore." he bared his teeth, breath coming out raggedly. "They. Had. _Names_. Major John Smith, from New York City. First Lieutenant Scott Barnes, Tampa Florida. Airman first class Roy Victor, Hermiston Oregon. Each one." he pointed at her, and for a second she twitched. "Had homes, families. None of them will have anything to bury, like me."

Ignoring Pyrrha's pale look, Eliane took one steadying breath. "And what about them do you find to be so inspiring? They lost their lives at some desk bound general's say so, and those families will get a packet of lies for their children's empty caskets. Do you truly think that's what your life is worth?"

"It's worth more than I ever would've spent here. Wasted rather." Jaune said darkly, scowling despite the redhead jerking towards him. Ignoring her, he stood up straight to level a contemptuous expression upon his sister. "Typical. You were always so happy to judge everyone else on what's right. You never listened to anything that threatened your tiny worldview."

"And you're any different? I can see now you've been indoctrinated into their mindless ethos." she replied coldly, now sliding into a full scowl.

"That's different from the crap Beacon preaches how?" Jaune threw his arms apart, letting them flop. "I've seen things that would shatter your petty goddamn worldview, but you'd still find a way to turn things around on me. You can never just admit when you're wrong."

"Which god?" she questioned, at last making his expression flicker. "Twice now I've heard you invoke this god. Which one Jaune? Light? Darkness? Or." her eyes narrowed into a suspicious glare. "An Earth god."

"Does it matter?" he snapped, taking a step back. "You never cared before. You never cared about anything but yourself and the family name."

"Because it has weight, unlike the people you've fallen in with." she shot back.

"Yeah, a fancy name versus saving the galaxy. Real important." he snarked, seething. "No wonder your team kicked you out, its amazing how they could stand your self righteous attitude for as long as they did."

Neither sibling took note of the redhead glancing away, nor the sight which grabbed her attention.

"You don't think so, but I do care about you Jaune. But if you're so convinced otherwise." Eliane reached to her back, wrapping her hand around her sword's grip. "Then perhaps I have to force you back to the right path."

"Force me." he repeated, standing defiantly before her threat. Pyrrha's cleared throat went disregarded.

"Your swordsmanship is far inferior to mine, but if you believe you have a chance, you're welcome to try." she warned, inching her weapon up.

He nodded once. "You're right."

Jaune reached for his side, but he wasn't going for Crocea Mors. Instead he unclipped the holster to grab the weapon held within, bringing the Zat out in one smooth motion, clicking something to make the machine pop up with an electric whirr. Both girls stiffened at the top piece aimed at the blonde, his outstretched arm imperceptibly shivering.

"You dare draw a weapon on me?" Eliane's voice was dangerously cold, but she didn't move any further.

"One shot won't kill you." he replied in the same way.

Pyrrha gulped. "Jaune-"

"Back. Off."

The redhead flinched, visibly backing away with her eyes wide. She reached for her shield, but stopped halfway in hesitation.

"I've had it." he said lowly, fingers rippling over the grip. "I've had it with you, I've had it trying to live up to a family name I couldn't honor in a millennium. I'm done." he growled.

"Jaune." Pyrrha said nervously.

The Zat remained where it was, but his glare was turned on the redhead. However, the blond didn't swivel his head far enough to allow Eliane to escape his gaze.

"Please, stop." she tried, swallowing a lump as she raised a hand. "I know you're upset, but this isn't-"

"Isn't right?" he interrupted, scowling. "Then what is? Just going back to the way things were? You get to be the great Pyrrha Nikos again." he said bitterly. "Famous everywhere once more. Back to being the invincible champion, the pride of Mistral."

"That's not what I-" she stopped, the redhead slowly retreating at the Zat jerking her way.

Though his grimace was flickering, Jaune's bitter look was resolute. "How many times did you tell me about it? The fans, the business offers, all of it. How'd you describe it again? Oh right exhilarating. You missed being famous, now you're back in the swing of it."

"That was before Jaune! Things changed. Please, stop this." Pyrrha was pleading, eyes switching from him to the Zat.

He snorted angrily, features twitching as he stepped back. "You know what? Have your fame, have your fancy life back. I don't belong there, any more than I do here."

"Stargate Command is discharging you."

Both turned their heads, laying their eyes upon the blonde. Eliane was almost still, hand still gripping the sword behind her back. Her breathing was faintly strained, yet her expression could be made of stone for all the emotion she showed.

"O'Neill told me the night Tyrian attacked. All four of you are being discharged from the Earth military once this mission is complete." she explained tightly. "He asked me to help you adjust back to civilian life once this was over."

Rather than shouting or yelling, Jaune was deathly calm, moving the Zat away from Pyrrha. "I don't suppose it occurred to you O'Neill was lying. He has that down to a science." he said, training the weapon on her again. "You've always been terrible at reading people, even when we were children it was so easy to string you along."

"Why would he lie?" she responded, though doubt flashed over her expression.

"We can ask the Colonel ourselves, just please." Pyrrha held her hand out timidly, flexing her fingers. "Please, put the gun down."

Jaune gritted his teeth, tightening his grip on the now twitching Zat. "Quit that, or I'll make you stop."

"I just want to help you." she insisted, grimacing. "Listen to me, did the last six months not mean anything? The apartment, the secret dates, does any of that matter to you?"

"Yeah." he quietly agreed, a pained scowl overcoming him. "Must've b-been a real ego trip for you."

The magnetic field on the Zat gave out for a split second, Pyrrha recoiling in shock. But before he could follow up on the insult, Jaune detected movement from the corner of his eye.

The two women jerked out of the way when he whipped the Zat around, the weapon firing a bolt of powerful electricity at its unfortunate victim, dropping them with a pained cry. He steadied himself just as fast, his training allowing him to refocus on the girls in his vicinity. Only then did he realize Pyrrha and Eliane were still standing, but neither were looking at him.

" _Ruby!_ "

Everything snapped into place. Weiss, Blake, and especially Yang dropped to their knees, crowding around the fallen victim just three meters away, the blonde rolling her over onto her back. Right beside them Ren and Nora hunched, unbridled shock written all over their expressions for the first time he had ever seen, with hands outstretched to help. All were crowding the girl on the ground, the one he shot.

Ruby was gasping, the red toned girl clenching her eyes shut as she panted. Her small form took the full brunt of the Zat, having never experienced a weapon like it before. Her cries were full of pain, and despite her friends strenuously trying to aid her, a pair of tears rolled down her temples.

Barely aware of his friends turning to him one by one, Jaune's scowl fell away at once. A tremble worked through his body, the young man unable to stop himself from backing up. His breathing was picking up as his fingers loosened, the Zat falling to clatter on the ground.

"I-I-I" he stuttered, unable to believe what he had just done.

Without a word Nora rose, her features hardening dangerously. No trace of a smile was on her face, nothing but cold hostility. In the blink of an eye she crossed the short gulf, her curled fist lashing out right into his midsection.

All the breath was knocked out of Jaune, the young man flung back with enough force to smack against the building. Even if he had the sense to grab the sword still hanging from his belt, Nora didn't let him; she powered right up to him to punch her friend in the face, jerking his head to the side in a gasp. The next second her fist landed on his opposite cheek, fling him the other way. Right after that another blow landed on his chest, the torso plate absorbing some of the force, but far from all.

No one spoke during her attack, all eight were either breathlessly watching Jaune's beating or helping to steady the injured girl. Every other second a wet smack sounded out, along with a pained gasp. Yang tried to stand up, trying to stomp towards him even as Blake and Weiss grabbed her arm, needing several seconds to drag her back to her gasping sister. Pyrrha was horrified, but an arm jabbed in her way halted the redhead from stopping Nora. Eliane was coldly watching her brother being hurt, sparing a look over her shoulder to shake her head.

Not until Ruby rolled onto her knees did Nora stop, grabbing a fistful of his hoodie to fling him away from the imprinted wall, doing nothing to stop him from collapsing in the center of them. The orange haired girl sighed, briefly rubbing her aching fists, now possessing a couple streaks of blood she tried to wipe off.

"You really are an idiot." she muttered, walking closer as she sullenly glared.

Jaune flopped over with a gasp. Unlike Ruby, no one was assisting him; even if it meant Eliane and Nora stopping Pyrrha, and Ren blocking Yang this time. After a moment of heaving he lifted himself up, groaning as he sat up. Bruises covered his face now, darkening by the second. He didn't seem to notice a thin trail of blood leaking from his nose, which an unsteady wipe of his arm did nothing to solve.

Yang and Blake helped Ruby stand up, with only the red toned girl showing worry at his state. Weiss was all but glaring at the blond, a match for Ren's cold stare. Not even Eliane looked as if she wanted to aassist him, the most she did was take her hand off her sword, though she carefully darted over to snatch the Zat off the ground. Only Pyrrha approached Jaune, her tight expression latched onto him.

He didn't respond until she tipped his head back, finally allowing his eyes to meet hers. She was emotionless, while his swelling face shown with regret.

"I-" Jaune wincing as he gasped, gingerly touching his swelling face. "I'm sorry."

A thin smile cracked Pyrrha's hard look. "I'm not the only one should be apologizing to."

Though she maintained her hold on him, Jaune creaked his head over under his own power. Ruby was cringing at him, not entirely because of her own lingering pain. Blake let go to level a glare on him, though Yang kept ahold for a moment longer, staring daggers at him.

"I'm sorry Ruby." he repeated, wincing in pain.

Ruby took a shuddering breath, finding Yang's arm below her to steady the girl. "Just, don't do that again okay?"

"Yeah." he agreed, glancing away. None of them looked happy at the simple exchange, but it was a start.

 _Clap_.

Blake and Eliane snapped their heads over first, their previous expressions vanishing. Weiss and Nora were next, followed by Ren and Pyrrha, while Yang finally let go to face the sound. Ruby and Jaune were the last, confusion overtaking them at the soft noises of hands coming together.

 _Clap_.

Around the corner of the small warehouse the sound echoed, louder this time. Yang opened her mouth to yell for the noisemaker to come out, but a heartbeat later they entered into her sight.

 _Clap clap clap_ , went the stranger's hands. Her white robes rustled around her, almost entirely masking the sounds of her footsteps. Black hair tumbled as far as her back, swept back to allow the entire party to see the dusky skinned woman's expression. She was grinning.

 _Clap_ went her hands once more, smiling at the nine wary huntsmen watching her. "Congratulations everybody."

As the closest, Blake took a breath as she laid a hand on her sword. She was far from the only one to reach for a weapon.

"Who are you?" she questioned.

"Me?" the woman replied, planting a fist on her waist. "I go by Anansi. And all of you." her free hand swept over the group. "Are in for a real treat. You deserve it, after all your hard work."

"Huh?" went Yang, summing up the overall mood.

"After all, each of you did so well. I couldn't have done better if I instructed you myself." she smirked. "You really know how to make an Ancient happy."


	30. Lifting the Veil

**A/N: Here we are people. This chapter, I either prove I'm either a master of foreshadowing, or just talented at covering my rear from all my numerous mistakes.**

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00000

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"Who are you? And what's an Ancient?" Eliane questioned immediately, laying a hand on her sword's grip once again. While she stuffed the Zat into an open pocket on her chest, the blonde peeked to the others preparations out of old habit; immediately she felt a wash of frustration, stemming from her being the only one to react appropriately to an unknown stranger.

Blake, Weiss, Ruby, and Yang were staring at the robed woman with puzzled disbelief, the blonde still supporting her sister (though she evidently didn't need the help now). Out of the four, only Yang had brought out her weapons, encasing her fists in Ember Cecelia with a rapid click. The heiress and the faunus laid hands on their respective swords instead, watching the grinning woman's every move. Ruby wasn't up to joining them yet, though she reached around to her back just in case.

Whilst RWBY were cautious, JNPR was a different story altogether. Nora and Ren were slack jawed, unwittingly backing up several paces with their eyes latched onto the stranger. Pyrrha was likewise staring breathlessly at the woman, though she maintained enough mind to stick out a hand for Jaune. The young man took it, but he needed her to yank him back onto his feet, staring wide eyed at the center of attention. It wasn't so much inability as distraction which made him require the help.

With all eyes on her, Anansi crossed her arms to smirk.

"Now that I have your attention, its time for some game changing revelations." she began with a twist of an arm, her tone almost playful.

Her eyes swiveled over, her movement prompting the eight observers to glance to the side. The blonde huntress continued to step to the periphery of her party, ignoring the two teams in favor of drawing her sword to trail near the ground.

"Oh, you." Anansi's smile ticked downwards, focusing her eyes upon Eliane.

"I will ask again, who are you?" she warned, raising the sword to point at the unarmed woman.

"Alls I have to say to you is thanks for nearly screwing up my entire card pyramid." she said sarcastically, tipping her head so to give a sidelong glance towards the sky. "The peanut gallery is really not happy with you. One of them wants to come down to beat your face in, he was an anti-boarding specialist before ascending. He finds your lack of respect disturbing."

Eliane reluctantly looked away from the woman when Nora mumbled something, leaving behind a wary stare when she turned to her brother. Jaune straightened himself out, wincing at his swelling face before he coughed into a fist

"Ellie, please get away from her, right now." he warned in a higher pitch. "I know you're curious about this, but you need to put the weapon down and back off."

"Yeah, please." Ren echoed, reaching for his twin holsters but stopping himself. Nora and Pyrrha settled for rapid nods instead of speaking. Upon seeing their alarm Weiss and Blake exchanged a look, and cautiously backed away several steps.

"Why are you afraid of her?" the blonde questioned flatly, unmoving.

"Because she's an Ancient Ellie. She's part of the race that built the Stargates, created humans, and a ton of other stuff before they rose to a higher plane of existence. You really shouldn't try tangling with her." he insisted nervously. He quickly waved her back, continuing even though she wasn't moving.

"Probably the closest thing to a genuine god in the galaxy." Pyrrha added quickly, glancing at him for directions.

"Pretty much." Anansi said with a roll of her shoulders. "Apart from this holy book on Earth and a bunch of _connasses_ on the other side of this galactic cluster, I'm the most caring godlike entity you're ever going to meet... hang on."

The woman stopped what she was doing to look towards the sky, scowling all of a sudden. More than a few eyebrows rose up at her strange behavior.

"I didn't say it, so shut up." she almost yelled, before looking back at the mortals to sigh. "I'm not a god, there. Cleared up for everyone to see."

Again the two teams exchanged looks, with Yang twisting her head around to mouth a question. The fearful looks from all of JNPR were the only thing keeping her from dragging Ruby from the area. While she knew she didn't have anywhere close to the amount of information they had, she did know enough to form an opinion; the name Ancient conjured up the mental image of a wise teacher or guardian, which this immature woman seemed hellbent on disregarding.

"Do you have proof? Because all I see is some stranger making claims." Eliane questioned, lifting the sword so it was away from her body. Jaune's frantic gestures intensified, now joined by Ren and Nora, all trying to ward her off; she ignored them all, focusing her attention on her target.

Anansi smirked once again, facing her fully to hold her arms out in a clear invite. "You're right. I'm not who I say I am, I'm just lying through my teeth. You should strike me down then."

"You're not a threat." she countered flatly, peeking at Nora tip toeing closer. At least she hadn't resorted to name calling.

"Yeah, and you're an insufferable twit." Anansi replied, her grin increasing at her stiffening posture. "In fact, you've driven away everyone who's supposed to be close to you. Instead of making genuine amends or asking if you're the problem, you tried telling your brother to stop caring about those he'd grown close to. In addition to trying to steal Crocea Mors from him when he didn't immediately hop on a flight to home, I should add." she lazily twisted a hand in the air, as the blonde's eye began to twitch.

"You what?" Ruby all but gawked at Eliane, letting her jaw open a little in offense.

"Ellie, you tried taking my sword?" Jaune spoke up, alarm turning into surprised betrayal. Her grimace was all the answer he needed.

"Oh, and you have a thing for guy-on-guy porn." Anansi concluded with a giggle.

Almost as one, the group blinked. A red faced Weiss, Yang, and Ruby each checked on JNPR; Ren and Pyrrha both had their mouth's agape in confusion, and Jaune winced at the bold claim. Nora however coughed into a fist, her cheeks turning a shade of pink at the claim. She wasn't the only one; Blake visibly gulped, quickly altering her footing to appear busy in addition to hiding her blush.

Eliane was still for a moment, her expression utterly blank. The blade by her side twitched, from the blonde rippling her fingers over the grip. She took a single breath, and launched herself forward in a wide slash. Right as Jaune cried out, her sword made contact.

Only, it didn't.

Almost too fast to see, Anansi seemed to weave around the swinging blade with what seemed to be no effort, the grin on her features only growing while she danced. In one smooth motion she dodged Eliane's attack, making no contact but a single outstretched hand to pluck something from the woman. The blonde was momentarily imbalanced by the speedy evasion, but she recovered quickly. Whipping around with her sword held out, she was ready to attack once more, this time with her eyes glowing from her semblance.

Anansi twirled back to face her, letting out a throaty giggle. She then raised her hand towards Eliane, clicking the Zat upright as she took aim. She was still smiling when she fired, the bolt of blue electricity hitting the blonde instantly, dropping her with a pained grunt. Eliane hit the ground and twitched, sucking in a strained breath.

"There, see if that makes the observers happy." Anansi said to herself, tilting her arm up to prop her elbow on her side. "What about you guys?" she turned to ask, not bothered by the sight of six weapons now pointed at her. "Cheery crowd, amirite?"

Eliane moaned, drawing herself closer. The woman was breathing deeply, trying to draw air into her overburdened lungs. Sparing a peek over her shoulder, the stranger shrugged and tossed the Zat away like it was a piece of garbage, briefly rubbing her hand. It was if she was trying to clean herself from the weapon's touch.

"Okay, okay." Yang let go of Ruby to stomp past her friends, wearing an annoyed glare. "I don't care who or what you are, what are you doing here? And why'd you shoot her?" she demanded. Beside her Ruby toed cautiously, extending her rifle out as she went to Weiss, who had her rapier up and ready to strike.

"Careful." warned Blake, weapons in hand. A wary glance behind her showed Pyrrha and Nora had their weapons aimed at the woman, but Ren didn't; he was blocking Jaune from charging past them, breathing deeply. There was an odd numbness at the edge of her senses, but she couldn't let it distract her right now.

Anansi snickered again, but the smile she wore hardened when her eyes landed on Jaune.

"I should smack you around too. Shame on your dummy head for pointing a weapon at your sister then your girlfriend. Shame." she admonished, creasing her brow while the young man froze.

The blond stood in place with his mouth agape, his anger forgotten in a flash. "Right, right, Ancient..." Jaune sighed as he smacked his face, right as he noticed the reaction to her proclamation, or lack thereof. "Um..."

Pyrrha winced apologetically. Coincidentally, so did all of team RWBY, Weiss and Ruby in particular. Rather than get upset, his cheeks flushed as he slapped his face again.

"But I won't. I got too much to do." Anansi said with a roll of her eyes.

Nora coughed, her grenade launcher twitching dangerously close to her friends. "Okay, I'm lost. Like, totally. I'm not the only one, right?"

"No, I am too. This isn't making any sense." Blake agreed, several nods meeting her.

"That's okay." Anansi said easily. "I'm here for a reason after all. Because, well..." she cupped her mouth to stifle a giggle. "The two most important points in your life is the day you were born, and the day you find out why."

Jaune blinked, his jaw cracking open before he clamped it shut. "Mark Twain."

"Bingo. You'd be absolutely amazed at how big of a following Samuel Clemens has up there." she gave him a thumbs up, and then focused on the white haired girl. "Now to get down to business."

Weiss gulped, forcing herself to loosen up. Ruby was right beside her, weapon in hand and an encouraging smile ready. Blake and Yang offered what they could for consoling looks, with the pair toeing around so they flanked her. Behind the girl Nora and Ren took up spots to add their own help, while Pyrrha keeping her rifle trained while she remained at Jaune's side. At last he drew his sword, anxiously sparing a look towards Eliane.

Anansi was unbothered as she walked closer. "You have my word I won't hurt you."

"That's not worth anything." she replied quickly, tensing up at the woman striding closer. She only stopped when she was centimeters away from Myrtenaster's point, standing akimbo while her smirking expression was latched onto her alone.

"Its all you got. Now, while I can do this from here, it's a lot more meaningful if there's some physical contact." she replied, keeping her arm curled up.

Ren coughed. "If she really wanted to harm you, there isn't a lot any of us could do."

"What does that mean?" Ruby questioned guardedly, sneaking peeks over her shoulder for seconds at a time.

"Take my word for it." he replied quickly.

Weiss grimaced. Though she had little reason to doubt Ren, she had even less cause to let this woman lay a hand on her in any capacity. She tightened the grip on her sword, staring dangerously at the unperturbed interloper.

"Don't touch me." she said simply.

Anansi sighed dramatically, rolling her shoulders. Lazily she extended her arm, pointing her finger at her chosen. "Very well princess. Alrighty then..."

"Wait, what's she gonna do?" Yang suddenly asked, eyes widening. The woman only grinned.

"By the power vested in me." Anansi intoned, her fingers falling away until her pointer remained, aimed right at Weiss' reddening forehead. "Abara kadabera, boom shakalay, and most importantly." she drew her lips back in a full smile, miming a pistol with her fingers. "Boop."

Her hand tilted back, at the same as Weiss shrieked. Anansi was almost shot repeatedly by the trio of guns still aimed at her, only Ruby's dive towards the staggering girl prevented her demise. While her rapier fell to the ground, the red toned girl wrapped her arms around the girl to steady her, dropping her own weapon with little hesitation. Blake edged closer to send worried looked towards her, helplessly listening to her gasp for breath. Yang's worry turned to anger when she looked to her favorite pair of opposites, their apologetic expressions doing nothing to sooth her. Just as she turned to Anansi with murder in her eyes, Weiss stilled.

The white toned girl opened her eyes, for a moment blinking uncomprehendingly. Ruby's worried expression centimeters from her own didn't seem to register; when she finally laid her gaze on the smirking woman, she visibly shuddered.

"You." she murmured, idly pushing Ruby away. She struggled until the red toned girl reluctantly let go, taking a couple unsteady steps closer to the bizarre woman. "I remember you now. You, you were... my dream..." she continued quietly, causing those closest to glance sharply. "You were in my dream. How?"

"That's right snow white." Anansi grinned, planting a fist on her hip. "Sam Carter's guess was spot on, back on Earth. Brightest bulb the Tau'ri have for a reason"

Weiss gulped, her voice turning accusatory. "You, you made me want to go to Forever Fall, for the gate-"

"Nope, first mistake." she shook her head. "I didn't _make_ you do squat. _You_ agreed to my offer." she declared, pointing at her again.

"I... I did?" she frowned in confusion.

"Free will." Nora mumbled disbelievingly, earning a couple looks.

"If anything, you owed me that much." Anansi went on, interrupting both her and Ruby before either could speak. "After all, had you not listened to the little voice in your head saying to go help civilians, that hacked Paladin would've torn you up before rescue came. Your sister would've gotten you to safety, but by the time you woke up in an airship's medbay, the two of you would be halfway back to Atlas."

Ignoring her stiffening, she turned to Blake, causing her to bristle dangerously.

"If you hadn't decided those Grimm in Vale's streets were more important, you would've either gone face to face with Adam Taurus, or bumped into Sun Wukong right as he jumped into the cargo Bullhead. Without a load of Dust being rammed into the control ship, the androids would've killed that many more people." she explained flatly, turning to the blonde next.

While the others expressions were hollow, Yang had wide eyes. More tellingly, her stance was loosened up significantly.

"Of all times to trip on a rock, it happened to be just as you were barreling down on Taurus yourself. Good thing it moved into your way though, a couple sliced fingers and a hunk of rebar in your gut are better than losing your forearm, or your life." she shrugged, causing Yang to flinch.

Lastly she turned to their leader, a now upset Ruby with a sheen of cold sweat on her brow. Anansi shrugged.

"I would've stopped your duel with Polendina if I could, but it wasn't the right time. Let's face it." the woman sighed, giving her forearm a scratch. "If you tried to tango with Cinder before the Atlesians drove her off, even with Ozpin's help, you wouldn't be standing here. Sorry kiddo, I honestly do feel bad about throwing all those distractions at you. It was harder than leading the Dragon away."

This time Pyrrha gulped, the sentiment being shared by all her friends. But unlike the girls, she, Jaune, Nora, and Ren were completely fixated on the woman, showing raw surprise rather than the shuddering the others had.

"As for you guys." Anansi flopped towards the four; for some reason she laid eyes on Jaune in particular. "Did any of you think it was weird how things turned out? That of all places Kagutsuchi could've gated to for some old fashioned conquest, it just so happened to be your planet. On the same day you were in the woods, less than two kilometers from the stargate, the surviving Jaffa leading you in, and the crazed Grimm forcing you through the ring yourselves. And then." she jerked up her arms in mock surprise. "Holy of holies, SG-1 shows up to the very same planet you just ended up on. Not even five minutes later to boot."

Ren lowered his weapons, the sable haired young man showing unbridled shock for the first time any of them had seen. "You, you're responsible..."

"Not for everything." Anansi began, until a loud groan caught her attention. Glancing over her shoulder, she laid an annoyed look at Eliane pushing herself onto her knees. "Do you mind? I'm monologuing."

"That's not possible." Pyrrha spoke up, fear and uncertainty clouding her face.

"What, monologuing? It's not hard, just stand in place and talk your ear-"

"No, no." she interrupted, sweeping a hand in front of her.

Jaune took a breath, wincing at some residual pain even though his head was mostly healed. "Ancients aren't allowed to interfere on the lower planes. It's not allowed."

"They told us that on Earth." Blake spoke up, noting Weiss grimacing as she picked up her sword again.

"Yeah, you guys would hurt each other for breaking the rules. Or something." Ruby added. Despite the quick claim, she peeked at Nora for a second, receiving a rapid nod.

Anansi grinned. "You're entirely right. And yet." she gestured at herself. "Here I am."

"So how then?" Weiss butted in, seething as she readied her sword. "You screwed with my head, I wanna know why."

"So you could find them, obviously." she waved towards the formerly missing team, causing all of them to stiffen. "If I hadn't come to you in your dream, it would've taken Stargate Command another five years before they would've punched in your address, assuming of course they didn't just write it off when the Grimm wrecked their probe." she sighed bemusedly, staring the girl down. "You thought three years made them different? Try eight, and see if you'd even recognize them."

Elaine staggered back to her feet, unsteadily wavering in place while she picked up her sword. Although she was still heaving for breath, the blonde managed to lift her head up enough to peer at the robed woman just a few meters away. A deep scowl overtook her expression at the sight of her, a raspy growl escaping her throat.

"I have four reasons for why I get away with breaking the rules, the biggest is a set of pals who make the Others nervous. But what matters to you." At last Anansi's smile dimmed. "Is the purpose of all this."

The air seemed to cool significantly, another cold breeze caressing the assembled group. But their collective shiver had nothing to do with the chilled wind.

"Why." Weiss demanded coldly, tracking the woman as she rolled her shoulders.

"I've dinked around enough, so I'll get right to the point." Anansi dropped her grin entirely, the woman crossing her arms.

"Which would be?" Blake probed.

The woman inclined her head back. "Yes, I intervened in your lives. I violated the non-interference law of the Ancients, on multiple occasions. Not as many times as you're assuming." she said as Weiss opened her mouth indignantly. "But enough to make a difference. Because of me, each of you are in solid condition, alive, and ready. Good thing, because you're about to face the greatest challenge of your entire lives."

Before anyone could ask a question, Anansi jerked around to face a seething Eliane, sword by her side as she stared daggers into the stranger. Rather than let her attack, the Ancient snorted; she curled her arm up to clench a fist, save for her pointer finger and thumb. She snapped them once.

"Get up in five minutes." she said, turning back around as Eliane limply collapsed. "Sorry, but she wasn't part of my design. In fact, she about ruined everything."

Jaune grimaced, taking in a breath through clenched teeth. But in the end, he forced himself to lower his weapons. "What design?"

"Truth is kiddos, you and your planet are more important than you can imagine." Anansi replied, crossing her arms. "There's a storm coming, a great hurricane that will blot out every star in the cosmos. Even the Ancients' cousins are pitiful in comparison. SG-1 deflected it once already, without understanding what they did. The Asgard knew what they were about to face, and in their gratitude they towed the Tau'ri's jalopy home and fixed it up. But when this storm returns, and it _will_." her voice darkened. "Nothing in this galaxy will survive."

Of all members of the eight strong party, only Ruby had the will to reply. "How do we stop it?"

"That, I can't tell you. More for times sake than anything." Anansi shrugged. "I can say however Earth will be the key to the storm's defeat. But they can't triumph alone." she rolled her shoulders, affixing a hard stare upon the huntsmen. "Your world will grant them the strength to vanquish any foe, and together, a new era of this galaxy will begin. You just have to survive the next thirty six hours."

"Survive what?" Nora questioned carefully, the orange haired girl working her jaw to do something about her dry mouth.

Anansi huffed, lacking any of her old playfulness.

"There are two armies amassing right now. One is a White Fang force." Blake stiffened, the color vanishing from her features. "Two thousand strong and armed to the teeth. They're currently holed up in Mountain Glenn, but they're preparing to launch an attack on Vale."

"And the other?" went Ren, the young man going pale.

"The second is a growing horde of Grimm. There's thousands gathered already, and more are joining them by the hour. Both groups are barely twenty kilometers away from the city." this time, blood drained from everyone's faces. "At dawn, they'll launch a two pronged attack. One aimed at the city, the other at Beacon."

Yang involuntarily took a step back, eyes wide along with everybody else. "They're..."

"It may not seem like it, but this is a crux moment. If Beacon falls, your world is doomed. It won't matter if your people flee and set up a new home, won't matter if the Grimm are wiped out afterwards, none of it. If you fail here." Anansi emphasized, narrowing her eyes. "Then this galaxy is as good as dead. But if you succeed, a bright future awaits you."

Jaune took a couple steps forward, hesitating when Pyrrha laid a hand on his shoulder. Offering a weak smile, the redhead let go of him, as he inhaled deeply to stop his shaking.

"So you're gonna help us?" he asked the stranger, internally proud to keep a stutter out of his tone.

"I already did." Anansi answered with a dissatisfied huff. "A lot can be done with two hours warning. A lot more can be done in twelve."

"That's all?" Weiss said immediately, lip curling back.

"And I gave up a lot of chances to do this much. Because now." Anansi paused, glancing up. The white haired girl's indignation faded, along with the worry of all her friends; two motes of glowing light fell from the sky, neither were larger than a thumb. They slowed down while they dropped, until both lights were hovering beside the woman's shoulders. "Well would you look at that, my chaperones are here. Alrighty kiddos."

"You're, leaving?" Ruby asked confusedly, lowering her rifle to point at the ground.

"Not by choice. I'll be cheering you guys on from the balcony seat. If you can though, don't die. I hate seeing my efforts go to waste." she was walking back as she spoke, gathering an encouraging smile. "In all seriousness, good luck, all of you. You're gonna need it."

Anansi turned around, brushing past Eliane without slowing down. Just as the blonde stirred, the robed woman seem to shimmer, her form glowing brighter by the moment. It took the huntsmen a moment to realize she wasn't making footsteps anymore, her legs moving without touching the ground.

Without warning powerful light sprouted from her skin, encompassing her form entirely. Wispy tendrils of glowing light trailed after the woman, her flesh dissolving into refined energy. Anansi continued on for a second longer, a single tendril floating over her head to twist. It was hard to look at directly, but it was almost like she was waving at them. The ball of energy shuddered then floated into the sky, zooming away after a second to disappear.

Each of the eight watched the display breathlessly. There was silence for a moment, until Ruby gulped.

"Her Aura, so much power..." she almost whispered.

"It's like looking into the sun." Pyrrha quietly agreed. Weak nods from her friends showed what they thought.

Jaune took a ragged breath, clearing his throat to get his friends to look at him. Though shaken himself, he only spared a look at Eliane slowly rising to her feet before he put on a hard expression.

"We have to warn them, there's no time to waste." he declared, forcing back a shudder.

"You mean Beacon?" Yang checked carefully, brow wrinkled.

He shook his head. " _Everybody_. I'll go to the _Prometheus_ , get them to scan the region. I need all of you to get to Beacon, start preparing."

"What about Ozpin?" Ruby asked worriedly.

"I'll worry about that. But I'll need you guys to get the students organized." he pointed to team RWBY.

Weiss and Blake exchanged a look, and nodded. Yang huffed, suppressing her own grimace to muster a smirk. "Count on us."

"Thanks. You guys." he turned to his own team. "Help them as much as you can, I'll join you once I'm done."

"Gotcha." Nora agreed, Ren nodding quickly. Pyrrha took a breath, but when she saw his soft smile, the corners of her mouth raised up too.

"Okay." he said, gulping as he brought the radio up to click a button. "Chariot Action, this is Two Five. I need an immediate recall, priority level Alpha."

" _Copy, standby_." the device responded. A second later there was a flash of light, and Jaune vanished.

...

00000

...

On the other side of the private airport, a humanoid figure shimmered into existence on top of a roof. She didn't manifest fully, becoming a detailed yet wispy wraith beside the lone horned girl.

"So, what'd you think?" Anansi smiled, her ghostlike form wavering in and out of existence. The twin Ancients circled her, ready to lash out in an instant.

"Not bad. Could've done without the immaturity." replied Bael, arms crossed and staring in the direction of the chosen ones.

"You know I hate the wise woman act. Leave that for the rest of the stuffy jerks." Anansi dismissed with a wave; immediately one of the lights buzzed into her ethereal skin, eliciting a muffled curse as she jerked her arm back. "Ow, screw you Kei."

"Understandable." Bael shrugged off, avoiding the Ancients gaze.

Anansi sighed. "Kinda wish I could do more for them though. If the Others had let me sic 'em on that Hatak parked eighty lightyears over there." she jabbed a smoke like thumb in a general direction. "It'd give Remnant a huge boost. Between its firepower and the snake tech they can reverse engineer, they'd be useful right away instead of a decade from now."

"Can't give them everything on a silver platter." Bael chided. "Speaking of."

The Ancient paused, frowning when the horned girl swiveled to look at her. At the same time, the buzzing lights halted, the pair wanting to hear what she had to say.

"Why didn't you tell West?" she questioned flatly.

"They have names you know." she protested, planting her incorporeal fists on her equally intangible waist.

"Very well." Bael tipped her head back, expression unwavering. "Why didn't you tell Jaune Arc about the price of this golden era?"

"You mean the part where he'll be the first of them to die? Not a chance." Anansi replied coldly. "Look, I'll knock on the Others for a lot of stuff." she glared at one of the lights inching closer. "But I still believe in the value of free will."

"How does influencing every decision they make count as free will?" the horned girl questioned laconically.

"Because they're still making a choice." she refuted. "Telling Jaune he will perish before all his friends won't be a good thing, all it'll do is make him live in fear for the rest of his life. Every moment, every decision, all of it can change thanks to this. Would you have a child knowing you'll make them an orphan before they hit eighteen? It'd be a sad miserable existence."

"Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness." the girl countered.

"Quoting Eric Blair doesn't change the fact that info could ruin all your plans for him." Anansi smirked, knowing when she won.

Bael sighed through her nose, her glossy horns turning with her head. "Point."

"See? This is why I'm staying on for your future project, somebody has to think of this stuff. Good genes aren't the only qualifier for the twenty thousand head list you're sorting through. Personally though, I'm hoping the winner is that special cutie from West Asia." she outlined with wavy gestures.

"The winner, whoever he may be, won't have as much free will as Subject Thirty Nine." Bael corrected, making the ethereal woman huff in displeasure.

"Before I head off, what's your crew gonna do?" Anansi turned around.

"Lay low most likely, just let the dice fall where they may." Bael replied. Her blank look creased when she heard the Ancient smother a giggle, earning her a raised brow.

"You? Leaving things to chance?" she snickered, covering her mouth.

"I've been at the game long enough to know sometimes you have to let fate decide. That said." the corners of her mouth ticked upwards. "I do favor weighting my dice."

"You mean feeding the Fang bad intel for the past six months? Or getting the cops to raid every outpost they had in the city? Personally I feel the hitmen you sent after the higher operatives was a wee bit coldhearted." Anansi cringed dramatically, sucking in a breath. Made the motions of breathing anyway, she wasn't physically present after all.

"All that, plus I called in a favor." she answered enigmatically.

When Anansi raised a puzzled brow, the twin lights unexpectedly burrowed into her form, quickly reducing her to just another mote. It buzzed closer to the horned girl, but her jailer zoomed right into her way. All three lights seemed to circle like flies before they shot into the sky, vanishing like they never existed in the first place.

"I just hope they buy it." Bael mumbled under her breath. Lowering her arms, the green haired girl cracked her neck and turned away, heading in the direction of Beacon.

...

00000

...

 **A/N: Just wanna take a second and give a welcome thanks to asredwer for binge reading Not What You Expected, dropping a dozen new reviews along the way. Thanks dude. For everyone else who's reviewed, thank you as well.**

 _ **BN: If it's good it's good. Congrats and thanks to the readers enjoying this guy's work.**_


	31. Eleventh Hour

**A/N: Just wanna say thanks to everyone who's followed and favorited Not What You Expected so far. I know I sound like a broken record here, but 125 favorites and 195 follows kinda calls for it.**

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00000

...

The bridge of the _Prometheus_ was almost silent. Beyond the hum of the machines and a pair of Airmen mumbling something over a terminal, no one in the elongated room spoke. O'Neill, Carter, Teal'c, Daniel, Reynolds, Washington, and Pendergast all stood around the table display, each one deathly quiet. Behind all of them was Jaune, who pondered if any of the men and women were uneasy about him being singled out like he was.

A short while ago most of the men shared a level of wary intrigue, not denying Jaune's far fetched claims but not believing him immediately, claiming (as he said himself) that such things just didn't happen. Carter and Daniel alone dove into investigating his tale, the two convincing the ship's master to bring up officials from Remnant as witnesses to verifying his account. Said officials were curious when they arrived, but now they were exactly like the SGC personnel, or upon closer inspection, worse.

Another time, Jaune supposed he would've been trying to hold in a chuckle at the sight; behind his spectacles Ozpin was wide eyed, the aged headmaster unhealthily pale at the data being shared. Ironwood was even worse off, all the color draining from his features. The focus of both men's attentions was the table's information sitting in plain view, showing an orbital snapshot of the region overlaid with several kinds of colored dots. Any other time their expressions would've been unusual enough to be funny, but not now.

Coughing into a fist, the formerly chipper Major composed herself. "Sensors have confirmed two thousand and ninety seven life signs at this abandoned city. But as before, we are unable to get a proper reading on Grimm, so accurate figures aren't available."

Carter need not have said anything, the medium resolution photos told them more than enough. In the forest surrounding Vale, black forms were amassing. In a patch of open area, the cameras were detailed enough to even make out individual Grimm. There weren't just common types; Beowolves, Ursa, Nevermore, Gryphons, King Taijitu, Geists, and a dozen other breeds were gathering in one area, so thick the ground was nearly blotted out. Every time the picture updated, the cancerous mass seemed to grow larger.

"Don't suppose we can just nuke them." Reynolds said quietly.

"Not a chance." Daniel immediately shot down, sending the Marine a sharp glance.

"We don't have any kiloton weight ordnance on board, so any strike would endanger civilians. It'll take days to strip the naquadah out of a Mark Seven or Eight otherwise." Pendergast replied sullenly, earning a disapproving look from the doctor as well.

"I could overload one of the naquadah generators as a makeshift bomb, that should produce a low enough yield to spare the surrounding areas." Carter offered, before immediately grimacing. "But the radiation would still be significant enough to poison the area for centuries to come. Not to mention the EMP would fry every bit of electronics in the area."

"What about the railguns? Conventional bombs?" Washington voiced, glancing up in worry.

"Way too many baddies, not enough firepower." O'Neill said unhappily.

"Indeed." Teal'c softly agreed.

Ironwood took a shuddering breath, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment before he swept his eyes over the room. He lingered on Jaune for a moment, puzzlement and suspicion present in his gaze for the duration of his staring.

"Colonel Pendergast, Colonel O'Neill, thank you for sharing this information with us." he nodded, steadying himself as they watched. "It appears we have several hours before these two groups launch their attack. Thanks to this information, we'll be ready for them."

"I'll alert the Valesian militia. It'll take some time for them to mobilize to this level, but their forces should be sufficient to defend the city for the time being." Ozpin nodded as he spoke, staring at the information and committing it to memory. "As for Beacon, all Huntsman, no matter their level of training, will be asked to defend the Academy."

"I'm sorry we can't do more to help." Daniel began, only for the headmaster to wave him off.

"The trade deal was only just submitted, you were under no obligation to help us at all. Because of you, we will not be caught off guard." he said with a nod.

"We're good people like that." O'Neill shrugged. A brief silence fell over the room yet again, the tension between the Colonel and the Headmaster almost palpable.

"Anyway, I'll broadcast a blanket distress signal to all available Atlesian units on the continent. Reinforcements will be forthcoming as soon as they detect it." Ironwood spoke up. Though his tone was hopeful, the look in his eyes showed what he really thought.

"What of your own forces?" Teal'c questioned.

"I'll have to split the 33rd battalion to cover both objectives. Half my troops will entrench themselves in Vale, the rest will set up defensive lines here." he traced a finger on the table, a short distance from Beacon. "Now, it looks as if the enemy will attack in two directions, one Grimm and one White Fang. My soldiers will be able to handle the faunus, leaving the huntsmen free to fight the Grimm. The airships will be overlooking the battlefield to provide support."

"There's a lot of hostiles compared to your own people sir." Reynolds spoke up.

"I think his plan is sound, but I'm worried about these air units. They're numerous enough to overwhelm the Atlesian ships." Carter voiced her concerns.

"Take out enough and the rest should run." O'Neill commented. Both men from Remnant gave him an uncertain look, lasting until the lead Colonel cleared his throat.

"You should get started right away. Good luck gentlemen." Pendergast said, gesturing towards an Airman. Ozpin and Ironwood stood up straight, allowing the flash of light to claim them.

Once more the bridge was silent, the men and woman of Stargate Command sending looks to each other for any sign. Jaune hesitantly returned to the gathering, remaining just as quiet as the rest.

"So, now what?" Daniel spoke up.

"I don't think there's a lot we can do." Carter grimaced. "We don't have the tools to help them, and bringing equipment from Earth would take too long even if we beam the gate to a secure location. The best we can do would be to help evacuate civilians."

"I've already sent a subspace transmission to Earth with the updated situation. I don't believe the Joint Chiefs will authorize much on our end, but if we need to, I will relocate noncombatants from the region." Pendergast had his hands clasped behind his back, grimacing in self reproach. Neither Reynolds nor Washington looked happy at the news.

"Off world or on?" Daniel asked the obvious, rubbing his chin.

"Another world would be safer, but the rate to which they could be transported via Stargate will be slow." Teal'c noted.

"So, only bad options and worse." Washington summarized.

O'Neill shoved his hands in his pockets as he turned to face the others, immediately causing each and every one to pick up. The Colonel was grinning.

"You know, I just remembered something. Yesterday Jimmy there asked me if we wanted a couple demonstrations of their tech in action, a sort of try before you buy. Whatddya guys say we take him up on the offer?" he asked, uncomfortably bright all of a sudden.

"Sir-" Carter's frown was cut off immediately by Teal'c nodding.

"I agree. I suggest we bring some of our own technology to demonstrate to them." he added. Faintly visible on the Jaffa's expedition was a thin smile.

O'Neill smirked as he glanced over, not looking at Daniel coughing into a fist as he settled on the other team leaders. "Say, why don't you guys tag along too?"

"Alone sir?" Reynolds asked, stiffening at the sharp glance Pendergast sent out.

"Nah, bring your whole teams. Hate to say it, but we're gonna need some mules." Though his voice was down, the smile on O'Neill's expression wasn't fading. Neither was the devilish look in his eyes.

"I see. Top shelf sir?" Reynolds checked, a smile of his own crossing the man.

"Might need a couple trips sir." Carter agreed; while she was clearly trying to loosen up, the excitement in her form was unmistakable.

"Colonel..." Pendergast warned.

Washington sighed. "I'm afraid I'll have to decline your little event sir. However, to do our jobs to the best of our abilities, learning a bit of the culture here couldn't hurt. Sir."

"By all means." O'Neill invited, a hint of a frown crossing his upbeat expression.

"I recommend you visit the cafes of this world. Their coffee is worth investigating." Teal'c suggested.

"Will do sir." Washington nodded.

Daniel crossed the small gulf between him and O'Neill, holding up an arm to herd them away from the gathering a short distance. Once they were a couple meters away, he spoke quietly.

"Sure about this Jack?" he softly asked.

"If you wanna sit this out, feel free." he invited dryly.

"I'm not, I just want to make sure you know what you're doing. This is a little out of our league you know, not to mention a dumb idea." Daniel replied, frowning.

"By dumb, you mean like going rogue to stop Apophis, or dumb like sticking your hand in a radioactive ball?" O'Neill grinned again.

The bespectacled man sighed. "Or you going undercover without telling anybody, or getting a little intimate with a nanite infested girl? Getting zapped by an Ancient repository was forgivable at least."

"My man." O'Neill softly chuckled, clapping him on the arm while the doctor rolled his eyes.

"Colonel." Pendergast warned coldly.

O'Neill turned to face him, shrugging lackadaisically. "Cmon, have we ever gone behind the somebody's back to-"

" _Yes_." Daniel, Carter, and Teal'c said simultaneously, the blonde coughing into a fist before adding a respectful, "Sir."

While he grumbled, Pendergast affixed a hard stare upon the leader of SG-1. "Colonel, I know exactly what you're going to do."

"Really? Because I have eleven people backing up my story." he countered.

"Fifteen sir."

O'Neill twisted his head around, surprise ghosting over his features for a moment. Despite a shiver rippling throughout his form, Jaune was resolutely standing at attention. It didn't matter that he was in civilian garb, or had a sword on his belt; he was going to speak out of turn, forgoing the consequences for his actions.

"Sir, my team and I are familiar with this world, you could use some guides." he said confidently, distantly noting the others giving him an odd look.

O'Neill sighed through his nose, before cracking a wry smile. "Thanks Arc, but I believe you're needed more with the rest of the huntsmen. After all, you know how to handle yourself here, and we don't."

"Yes sir." Jaune replied, fighting back a wince.

"Perfect. Alright kid, do the USAF proud, and good luck." he gestured out of sight, causing Pendergast to grumble and indicate to an Airman what to do.

Right before the light claimed him, Jaune snapped up a quick salute. O'Neill raised his hand halfway in response, but didn't go any further when the young man vanished. A sigh left him once he was gone.

"Sir, what was that?" Washington asked confusedly, glancing to Carter and Daniel for answers. Both shrugged in response.

The Colonel turned around, for a second meeting Pendergast's riled gaze. "So, demonstrations await."

"General Hammond isn't going to approve this." the ship master warned.

...

00000

...

 _Cheyenne Mountain, Earth..._

An unusual gathering had assembled in the conference room of Stargate Command, the austere location holding a half dozen men and women. All but one had a freshly printed report in hand, still warm from the xerox; the only man who didn't have a sheaf had already read the compiled report twice over. From a quick summary of the event which cost them a team to an impeding crisis, they went over the papers as he requested.

"Gentlemen, ladies, I want your thoughts." went the expectant twang of General Hammond, standing at the head of the table as he looked over the group to get a feel for them. The bald commander spared a glance to the side, gazing to the Stargate on the other side of the windows.

The first of the men lowered his report and coughed. Colonel Munro of SG-4 stiffened under the attention. "Sir, I recommend we withdraw our forces immediately."

"I agree sir. The situation is untenable." Captain Rachael of SG-12 nodded with her counterpart.

"There is a chance the local forces can get a handle on this with Stargate Command's assistance, but I'm not sure now General." SG-17's Major Matthias winced.

"Sir, this is SG-1 we're speaking of. If anyone can pull a win out of this, its them" Colonel Pham pointed out, the leader of SG-5 giving the others a defiant look.

"We should just cut our losses sir." declared Captain Austin of SG-15, the greying officer sullen under the eyes of the others.

The last man to speak wasn't clad in a uniform, but a business suit with a tan briefcase in hand. Having shown up at his own initiative an hour ago, his inspection had turned into an advisory role no one particularly wanted, once he got wind of something big happening. Nevertheless, the personnel had no choice but to heed the guest's words, and the proclamations of those he represented. To ignore them was to invite ill will they were desperately trying to avoid.

"General Hammond." Richard Woolsey nodded, applying a polite level of respect to his tone.

"Yes?" the texan questioned, trying to avoid sounding snappish.

"While new allies are valuable these days, Remnant offers little to us in material or economic terms, and vice versa. As such, I feel that increasing our involvement in a local dispute isn't worth our time. With this in mind, the IOA has made a recommendation to the Joint Chiefs to recall the _Prometheus_ immediately." the bespectacled official reported briskly. His tone held no malice or glee, he simply informed them of the facts; he pointedly ignored the bristling his statement gave to the officers however.

"I understand entirely Mister Woolsey. But I'm afraid I'll have to disagree." Hammond replied. Right away the collective personnel glanced to him sharply, although only the bureaucrat was free to reply.

"General, I don't follow." he creased his brow, but to his credit his expression hardly changed otherwise.

"In fact-" he started, pausing to look towards the stairs. Just as the team leaders twisted around to see, a man in a splotched uniform with a blue beret strode past the guards, not stopping until he brushed past Woolsey to salute.

"General Hammond." greeted one of the few foreigners involved in the SGC's daily operations, his mildly accented english legible enough to the Americans. A nod was his cue to lower his arm.

"Colonel." Hammond greeted back.

Colonel Sergei 'Sokol' Kozak stood at attention, heedless of the odd looks he received. "Sir, I have contacted Deputy Minister Valsiev, he has agreed to your request. They await only your word."

"Good work son." To the room's surprise, a grin cracked Hammond's expression as he clapped the Russian on the shoulder.

"Think nothing of it General. This alone should solve most complaints of American domination of the program, and Valsiev likes to keep his private affairs behind closed doors." Kozak nodded, an evil grin plastered on his face.

Upon noticing their confusion, Hammond nodded again to dismiss the Spetsnaz officer, who stepped out of the way. Although his own people came first in the Texan's mind, when he spoke he was addressing the IOA representative, sparing another look towards the Stargate.

"Mister Woolsey, to answer your question, the answer is no. I am not ordering a recall of the _Prometheus_ or SG-1 unless the Joint Chiefs personally belay my command. Instead." Hammond smiled as he explained his plan, quietly relishing the shocked looks he inflicted.

"General, that's..." Captain Austin gulped rather than continuing, the rest of his officers (save for a quietly approving Pham) settled for nods of agreement. All save for Kozak, who didn't even try to dampen his grin.

"Madness." Woolsey declared. Physically meek or not, he put on an air of determination the General privately approved of. "I could go into great detail at the failed legalities of your so called plan, but I suspect you won't listen to me. Instead, I will say you're making an amateurish mistake."

"By all means, tell me." Hammond waved simply.

The suit clad man rolled his shoulders, firm under his weighted stare. "While I have never served in the armed forces, I have done enough research to know the importance of logistics. Even if Remnant's Stargate wasn't buried, transporting the forces even to this mountain would be next to impossible in the timeframe you're operating under. Ten hours is not enough time to execute an operation like this. That's before you decided to make it a joint Russo-American affair."

Captain Rachael cleared her throat, earning a nod to speak. "General sir, it pains me to say this, but Mister Woolsey is correct. This mission is impossible under the current circumstances."

"Correct, both of you. Conventionally speaking, this is a recipe for disaster." Hammond replied simply.

"Then why do you insist on pursuing this matter?" Woolsey pressed.

Unexpectedly, he smiled. "Because, if there's one way to describe this job, it's unconventional."

Before anyone could ask what he meant, an alarm began to wail. Hammond was up and powering towards the glass in an instant, just as Harriman's voice came over the intercom. "Unscheduled off world activation."

The bloom reached out from the Stargate with nothing in the way, the iris left open as per his command. A couple seconds after the wormhole stabilized a set of four humans barreled through, all clad and armed as SGC personnel; three shambled down the ramp in a woozy stagger, but the leader of them continued to run. Despite the numerous guards in her way, the leader of the team he dispatched thirty minutes ago wasn't letting anything stop her.

"General Hammond?" Woolsey questioned.

Moments later the runner darted into the conference room, finally slowing down. The woman half collapsed on the large table, causing the officers closest to her to jerk out of the way. Though heaving for air, the woman forced herself to stand up, raising a shaking hand to salute.

"Take a breather Captain." Hammond ordered, causing her to lower her arm and gasp raggedly.

"Only, stopped to, dial sir." Captain Carolina of SG-10 gasped. "Contact mission, was a-"

There was a bright flash of light in the corner, appearing then vanishing with a high pitched whine. A second ago there was nothing, the next a semi familiar addition was in the room. A wave from the General kept the guards from firing on the bizarre throne like construct now situated with them, with most of the men and women stiffening at the unusual sight.

"-Success." Carolina finished lamely, sighing to herself.

There was a single figure resting on the silvery control chair, one who could start a panic just by going up a few levels. Pasty grey skin, no more than a meter tall, a bulbous head, and a pair of deep black eyes described the alien being's appearance; it was no accident the race this arrival belonged to happened to be ingrained in popular culture. Yet Hammond wasn't intimidated or frightened in any way. Instead, he smiled warmly.

"Hello General Hammond." greeted the alien in a meticulous voice; carefully structured, but filled with a steely determination all the same.

"Thor, glad you could make it on short notice." the General replied. Behind him Woolsey cleared his throat, quietly nervous to be in the same room now.

"Your message from Cimmeria was unusually well timed General Hammond." Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, outlined with a dip of his head. "A Goa'uld warship threatened an Asgard Protected Planet a short while ago, necessitating the High Council to send me to deal with them. For some bizarre reason they did not respond to my warnings. You managed to contact me before I returned home."

"Sorry to take up your time Thor, but we need your help." he said, a frown creasing his expression.

"I am always happy to render assistance to Earth General. However, both my time and permitted actions are limited." Thor reminded.

"I know, but I assure you what we need won't stress either category. Specifically, we'll need your ship for twenty to thirty minutes." Hammond began, causing the diminutive alien to flick his eyelids.

"That is an odd way to start a conversation. Could you explain what you mean before I get the wrong impression?" the Asgard requested.

Hammond went over his plan again, this time including the Commander's role in events. Once more, his subordinates balked in sheer disbelief, although it wasn't as severe as a few minutes ago. Woolsey especially widened his eyes in understanding.

Thor contracted his eyes a minute degree, the Asgardian equivalent of a raised brow. "Your request is... unusual, but is permissible under the Treaty. In any case, I will not be delayed for long."

"Thank you, we owe you another one." Hammond nodded, an imperceptible sigh escaping him.

"However, I must ask something in return." Thor started, his bulbous head tilted several degrees to the side. "With my help, you are about to deploy more aid than any other faction you have ever contacted, second only to the assistance rendered to myself and my people. What is it about this world that is so special? What is worth all the lives you're about to risk?"

"On the surface, not much. But there's more at stake here than what meets the eye." the General explained, crossing his hands behind his back.

A small animal jumped into the table's edge, pacing for a moment before it sat on its haunches. Immediately the humans and the Asgard peered to the tiny red creature, the cat sized fox halting its sniffing to stare at the alien in the room. One of the fox's ears twitched, tilting its head in puzzlement at Thor. There were no marks or special objects on the fox, it was just a H̴a̷r̶m̸l̸e̵S̸e̶ creature.

"Wait, did anyone else hear that?" Carolina voiced all of a sudden.

"No, I felt something too." Pham said uneasily.

"Heard what? Nevermind, why is there a wild animal in this room?" Woolsey spoke insistently, taking a couple cautious steps away,

Thor was silent for several long seconds, his black eyes staring hard at the intruder. When it finally broke contact to scratch its ear with a rear foot, the Asgard slowly turned to the balding human.

"General Hammond, your wisdom and moral code are an exemplar to your entire race. We hold you in a high regard for this reason amongst many." he began warily, keeping his attention locked onto the furry creature. "Of all humans, you should know better than to associate with entities such as this."

"I know Thor. I was this close to shooting it when it introduced itself." Hammond agreed.

"A wise choice unto itself, but you evidently listened to its claims. Beings like this one are skillful at lies and manipulation." Thor pointed out, giving the fox a wary look, and it in return.

"This is the full extent of my cooperation. In any case, it didn't offer something for nothing. My grandchildren's safety is assured now, no matter what happens to me." the General outlined.

"Um, its a fox sir." Matthias pointed out, frowning in confusion.

"That is no mortal creature, never was." Thor corrected darkly, turning back to the staring mammal. "I will be taking this outsider with me. Contact me when you require my ships transporters."

"Will do Thor, and thank you again." Hammond nodded once more, glancing expectantly at the intruder.

"I am always happy to help you General Hammond, but now I wonder who is benefiting most from this crisis." Thor moved a thin arm over a jewel, and with a flash of light he and the fox vanished.

...

00000

...

Rest came surprisingly easy the previous night, given the information she received. Ruby fully expected herself to be tossing and turning for the entire time, but instead she fell asleep remarkably fast, not even dreaming. A part of her wondered if Anansi had something to do with it; Ren failed to reassure her at the possibility, but she couldn't find the will in her to complain. In the same way, her friends somehow managed to sleep soundly, though Weiss clearly did the worst.

It was a good thing, because there had been no relief since they woke up.

The previous evening was filled with activity, from evacuating huntsmen too young to participate, to directing fresh arrivals eager to help, to accepting donations of food and ammunition from citizens. Valuables and books had been shipped out en masse, and in their place came barricades made of concrete, metal, wood, and whatever else was available, as well as ammunition stockpiles for the students' own weapons and Atlesian soldiers. The overcast sky and cold breeze did nothing to soothe the organized chaos that had overtaken Beacon.

In a shallow depression a short distance from the wall, Ruby stared at the sibling of her hastily dug barricade a few hundred meters away, both made by frantic Atlesians the previous night. There was a gap of some eighty meters between the shallow ditch she inhabited and the multilayered trenches the white armored soldiers had, lined with barricades and automated turrets. They had several lines to fall back on, while she and nearly three hundred huntsmen made do with one stretch of gouged out dirt.

Ruby felt a little uneasy at the sight; she remembered a few tales during her lessons on the Great War, how civilians would sometimes set up picnics in the earlier days to watch the battles. The fact they were a good distance from the gathered huntsmen didn't help her feelings of being a bystander, even though she and the many huntsmen gathered here would be just as important as the soldiers.

"Yo Ruby!"

Jerking around in surprise, the red toned girl sighed in relief at the pair coming up to her team's spot, she and Yang beside her rising to greet them. Blake and Weiss peered around as well, with the heiress standing up to stretch sore muscles. It beat staring down the so far empty plain between Beacon and the forest, broken only by a handful of surviving wrecks from eight months ago.

"Hey Val." Ruby warmly greeted to the young team leader, but her eyes were drawn to the older man walking at his side.

"Hey, look who I bumped into." Valentine greeted with a weak chuckle, jabbing a thumb at the man brushing past him.

"Uncle Qrow." Yang smiled as she took in a hug from the raggedy man lowering to a knee to meet her, a bit of readjustment allowing Ruby to join in as well.

Pressing up close to him, the small girl ended up taking a sniff, and pushed her head up in surprise. "Uncle Qrow? You..."

"Haven't touched a drop since yesterday." Qrow admitted, finally breaking the hug to leave his hands on the sisters' shoulders.

"Wow, that's, um..." Yang looked away rather than continuing, making him let out a throaty chuckle.

"I know, but I think this is a good as any time to quit drinking." he shrugged loosely, fighting a grimace.

Valentine clasped his hands behind his back, idly moving his axe out of the way. "So, you're an experienced huntsman. Glad you're here."

"Me too, good to see lil Rubes here is still making friends." Qrow still smiled even as Ruby punched his shoulder.

"Still, I'm happy you stuck around." Yang nodded, earning a clap on her shoulder as he sighed.

"Even if I wanted to, I'm not getting out of this mess. Tell you what, um, Trail?" he checked, a nod from the boy. "You and your team keep your eyes on me, you just might learn a thing or two."

"Will do." Valentine nodded, smiling as he let out a nervous breath.

"Alright, I'm gonna go check on other students, be careful." Qrow let go to stand up fully, reaching for his belt before he stopped himself.

"You too Uncle Qrow." Yang gave a small wave at him, which he returned sloppily as he moved away.

When Ruby turned to Valentine, the young leader sighed raggedly. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just a little..." he winced instead of finishing, gazing away from them.

"You'll be fine, just don't miss." Yang ribbed playfully, grinning when a blush came over his cheeks.

"Yeah, um, yeah. I should get back to the others before they break something." Valentine said, backing away while he spoke.

"Stay safe Val." Ruby nodded, mustering an encouraging smile. He smiled too, waving as he left.

Yang sighed as she turned back around, returning to her friends. The blonde lowered herself into a crouch behind a raised barrier, hastily erected over the top of the ditch to provide more cover for the huntsmen. It was an ugly and garish addition, but few wanted to complain about the extra protection.

Instead of joining them, Ruby stood apart for a moment in indecision, prompting Weiss to glance over. "Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine." Ruby nodded, causing Blake to peer over her shoulder. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Don't go too far." the black haired girl said, receiving a quick nod.

Walking slowly, the red toned girl didn't have to go any vast distance, brushing past a few other teams in the way. She heard their nervous mumbling, saw their unease, but she detected no sign of panic. Everyone was clearly afraid, even her. But they weren't about to let that stop them. Some even had it in them to laugh, such as her teachers; the sight of Port laughing uproariously a short gap from cover was odd enough to make Ruby stop, raising a brow at the thick professor facing the coffee addicted teacher.

"Oh ho good chap, but you're sorely mistaken." Port boasted.

"Hogwash. I taught Grimm studies better than you ever could." Oobleck refuted heatedly.

"I'll let you believe that, history teaching is so easy in comparison." Port flippantly waved off.

"You can't even properly categorize your so called collection! For that I win our bet." Oobleck proclaimed. Coming up to the duo was a frazzled Goodwitch, who took one look at their argument and sighed.

Shaking her head, Ruby continued on her way. Sparing another glance at the so far empty plain, she had to stop for a moment at the sight of a pair of figures hunched over in the field. Hearing mutterings from the bystanders, the red toned girl drew her scythe to peer through her scope; once she saw the green uniforms she lowered her weapon in surprise, much more so when the two ceased what they were doing to dart back to the Academy. They were heading to a small patch between the two lines of defenses, to what she hoped was something powerful enough to make a difference.

Vaulting over a mass of sandbags, O'Neill slid down the small depression into their nest, with Carter right behind him. Taking a second to stop skidding, he stood up to compose himself before his small party.

"Well, that was the last of the C4 and claymores. Makes thirty one IEDs we've planted." he reported, taking a P90 from Daniel to put on his sling.

"Think it'll make a difference?" asked Reynolds, clamping the feed shut on his M60. The tips of the 7.62 NATO rounds would be gleaming if there were any sunlight, though now he could see without them night vision goggles. Rising daylight made them unnecessary.

"Probably not sir, but every little bit helps." Carter replied, picking up her custom made weapon while staring at the unusual centerpiece of their nest: a tripod mounted M2 Browning machine gun. While the barrel was aimed over the open ground, a Marine was behind the trigger, and an Airman was waiting on the side to feed the hungry weapon.

Upon seeing the incongruous man amongst SG-3, O'Neill raised a brow. "Airman, sure you're up for this?"

"Positive sir." Edward Walsch answered tightly, arranging the .50 BMG belts to a satisfactory location, while tugging on the M4 slung over his torso. The Colonel wanted to press further, but one look at his determined expression told him enough.

"O'Neill." Teal'c spoke, rising to his feet with a weapon in his grip. The human quickly slung his P90 away to accept the freshly loaded M249, habitually going over the SAW.

"Thanks T. Sure you don't want this yourself?" O'Neill grimaced, unhappy with even offering to part with the machine gun.

"Staves seem to be effective against the full range of threats this world offers." the Jaffa replied, nodding to the Goa'uld weapon resting in the dugout. "But just in case." he bent over to pick up another firearm retrieved from the pile in the back, what looked like a childishly designed M16 at a glance.

"Fully automatic shotgun, should do the trick." Daniel shrugged, picking up his own P90 to load a magazine. Teal'c didn't reply, instead moving closer to the edge where his staff was located, the AA-12 in hand. He showed no sign of relinquishing the weapon unless he absolutely had to.

"Yeah, a lot of gun for one man." O'Neill grinned.

Daniel shrugged without a care. "Its okay. I'm confident in my own attributes, no need to compensate."

O'Neill's eye twitched dangerously, a glare halting a snicker from the Marines. He would've said more, but one taking an M107 to set up where he stood made him groan instead. The blonde woman settled for a dramatic sigh at her immature friends, idly unfolding the Carter Special to form a full length carbine. While she loaded in a magazine, she took out the Atlesian comm device Ironwood provided them to double check it, taking a second to peer at the pile of ammunition, spare rifles, and explosives at the back. It seemed like overkill to bring this much ordnance, but she knew better.

Back at the line, Ruby stopped at her destination. The closest of her once missing friends stopped what they were doing to glance, Nora mustering an open smile.

"Hey Rubes, nice to see ya." the orange haired girl stood up to work some stiffness, with her hands continuing their task. Her team ceased their own activities to take a peek, mustering what they could for a greeting.

Though Ruby smiled in return, her silver eyes were drawn to the incongruous weapon slung around Nora's chest. The bubbly girl wore her skirt and jacket outfit with Magnhild on her back, but wrapped around her torso was a loaded P90, her hands flipping the safety off as she watched. A single aside glance showed them all to be similarly armed; Ren's green sleeveless shirt, Pyrrha's corset, and Jaune's hoodie and chest plate, all had the Earth weapons placed over them.

Nora toed to the side so Jaune could speak face to face, with the other two peering at her. "Hey, good to see you."

"Yeah, you too." Ruby nodded, blocking a sigh. He could see well enough though.

"We know." Ren spoke up, glancing over the empty plain. Normally the sun's rays would be gleaming over the tree line by now, but the overcast sky blocked any of that.

"Because hey, you never know if you'll need them or not, right?" Nora shrugged naturally.

"Makes sense." Ruby nodded.

"Eh, least we got some of these." Jaune dug into his belt, jostling his sword as he withdrew a whitish grey brick she recognized at once. "C4. Not a lot, but between us we have a few kilos. Better than nothing."

"I have a couple grenades here." Pyrrha grabbed an egg shaped explosive from her own belt to raise into view, her bronze shield and black P90 clashing color wise.

"Yeah, so you're prepared anyway." Ruby smiled, halting a grimace. Sighing, he nodded dejectedly.

The red toned girl picked up at the hooded woman striding closer, her glance causing the others to twist to the new arrival. Unlike them Eliane didn't try taking cover, but once she was by them the blonde tugged her hood down.

"We seem to be as prepared as possible now." she reported flatly.

"Thanks Ellie." Jaune said, trying a weak smile.

She nodded, her expression flickering. "You know, just in case none of us survive..."

"Don't worry about it." Nora clapped her on the shoulder, the woman jerking back as if she was attacked. As she sucked in a breath, Ruby smothered a quick snicker at her sudden act, Pyrrha and Jaune covering their mouths at the same time. Only Ren didn't grin, accomplishing this by peering away.

Composing herself, Eliane started to open her mouth once again. And once more she was interrupted, this time by Jaune walking up to lay a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll get through this Ellie, all of us." he said reassuringly, the blonde grimacing at the hand touching her.

"Yeah." Pyrrha nodded with a forced smile.

"Yeah." Ruby agreed too.

As one, every scroll beeped in unison. Ruby, JNPR, Eliane, and every other huntsman in the vicinity snapped to the devices, the speakers sounding off insistently.

"You should get back to the others." Ren told her, all traces of cheer evaporating.

"Yeah, good luck guys." she said quickly, walking backwards to keep her eyes on them for as long as possible.

"You too." Jaune gave her a curt wave, smiling with as much reassurance as he could give.

In a shower of petals Ruby vanished, blinking away from her friends in an instant. Ignoring the whipping gusts she left in her wake, and the many flinching huntsmen she zoomed past, she focused on returning to her team as fast as she could move.

Seconds later she popped back in, Yang, Blake, and Weiss glancing to her sharply before they all waved her down. Bringing out her scythe, Ruby lowered to a crouch in the middle of them, taking a peek at Yang's scroll she had out to show them. She knew what the blanket message was already, but the bolded print seemed to crystallize the reality she found herself in. The rising mumblings from the many others in earshot were all coming to the same conclusion as her. Taking a shuddering breath, Ruby spoke low enough so only her friends could hear.

"Here they come."


	32. The Second Battle of Beacon

**A/N: Okay everyone, this is it. This is the second most intense chapter I've ever written, where I formally lay my cards on the table. To every reader who's made this far, I dedicate this to you. If you just skipped this far because of the chapter title, shame on you.**

 _ **BN: The moment has finally arrived. After all the weeks and days of spit-balling, debating, organizing, engineering, contemplating and whatever it is we did... It's finally here! Lets hope all you guys got the hints for everything. I think this might be a copout but. This guy man. I've talked to him about making every red herring turning into actual hints, Chekhov's guns. And overall, everything is pretty much something that is used in the future!**_

 _ **Every character, hint, and item are important in someway shape or form. Don't ignore it! or else this guy is gonna have a hard time. All that work and no one gets them.**_

 **Now then... Three, two, one,** _ **execute plan**_ **.**

00000

On the top of a long dead airship, Cinder lowered her binoculars to grimace. She wasn't the only one; Mercury and Emerald were at her side, alternating between themselves for shared binoculars, while Hale was overlooking the plain a body's length away. Distantly noting her male underling handing off the binoculars again, she slowly glanced towards the self proclaimed general.

"There's no way the frostbites could set up this thick of defensive lines this quickly. They'd need hours of warning..." Hale lowered his white knuckled grip on the binoculars, his expression caught somewhere between hate and fear. "Moving this many forces was impossible to hide forever, but they shouldn't be this prepared by now. It can't be done, it just can't."

Cinder could easily see why he was upset. Instead of slaughtering a bunch of unprepared students, they were staring down two separate lines of ready defenders, evidently waiting for an attack. If that were it, she wouldn't claim the situation before them was insurmountable. Difficult for sure, but not impossible. But predictably, there were more than some Great War style trenches to face; in the sky regular air traffic had vanished, replaced by a handful of Atlesian gunships prowled in waiting, never straying far from the colossal warships floating above the battlefield. She saw two over Beacon and another pair patrolling Vale itself, the latter joined by a number of city militia Bullheads.

Taking one more look through the binoculars, she swept her eyes over the masses of earthworks before the Academy (pausing for a moment on a small nest between the two concentrations) once again, coming to a rough headcount of at least six hundred fighters in total, likely more. With the way her luck had been going, probably a lot more. This was ruling out the likely huge number of traps within the Academy itself too, ready to spring on anyone lucky enough to make it that far.

"Boss?" Mercury said quietly.

Cinder lowered the set to twist towards him, catching Neo daintily twirling her parasol at the far side of the airship. "What is it?"

"I know how this is gonna sound, so don't take this the wrong way." he began guardedly, causing Emerald to swivel. "Sure you wanna do this?"

"What's that mean?" the green haired girl questioned, soft enough so to not distract Hale.

"I'm not being a coward or anything. What I mean is we were supposed to bring the hammer down on a bunch of panicky targets." he explained, grimacing.

Emerald sucked in a breath. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but he's right. Somehow they've known we were coming for a while now. Maybe a traitor sold us out?"

 _Or they exploited the view gods have_ , Cinder thought, briefly craning back to stare at the overcast sky. An untouchable airship was up there, and its implications frightened her more than she wanted to admit. While she did inform Salem of the vessel's existence, her master surprisingly brushed off her words. All she cared about now was destroying Beacon.

But aloud, she sighed. "The how doesn't matter. We have to deal with the situation as is."

"Tell that to him." Mercury nodded away.

While they talked, Hale had continued to fume to himself at their circumstances. Though Cinder hated this arrogant man and his snide attitude, she felt an uncharacteristic twinge of pity for him right now. There was little chance his valued army, a force he always spoke of with vast pride, was going to end this day in a good condition, assuming her master would leave a loose end lying around afterwards. A couple steps brought her within arms reach of the faunus leader, and a cleared throat caught his attention.

"What?" he snapped. Suppressing the anger, Cinder took a breath.

"If you want to call off the attack, nows the time." she said softly. Hale's expression flickered, and for a moment she thought he was about to do just that. If he did truly choose not to, then for self preservation Cinder would have to back out as well.

Then her arm tingled, the precursor of what was to come. Gulping down a lump, Cinder turned around to behold a sight she once thought would never happen; Salem strode towards their observation point, seeming to float rather than walk across the fallen airships hull. Emerald, Mercury, and Hale all backed away involuntarily, whereas the Maiden was rooted in place. Her master paused at the top of the viewing point, her lip curling at the defenses a short distance away.

"They are ready, despite our preparations." Salem noted darkly. Cinder was fully prepared to explain (meaning pass off blame), but instead of seeking responsibility the inhuman woman scoffed. "Ozpin's new allies must have told them. It doesn't matter."

"What do you command my master?" Cinder asked carefully, halting a shudder.

"The Grimm have gathered, half of the horde will strike at Vale." Salem told them, leaving out how it was Cinder's idea to target the city in order to prevent reinforcements. "The rest will be here to raze Beacon. They will not target the White Fang, you have my word on that. Are your forces ready?"

Hale gulped, trying a hopeful glance at the humans. The best they could offer was winces.

"Y-yes." he replied shakily.

"Good, now begin the attack." Salem commanded.

The faunus leader hesitated, but he reached for his belt to draw a strangely proportioned weapon. Hands shaking, Hale loaded an oversized shell into the flare gun, the red painted round vanishing once he clicked it shut. As he lifted the signal to the overcast sky, he whispered under his breath.

"Gods have mercy." Hale squeezed his eyes shut, and pulled the trigger.

00000

Just about every individual in the area tensed when they saw a hazy red light fly up from the forest's edge, the simple flare rising a hundred meters into the air before lazily dropping. Ironwood grimaced on the airship bridge overlooking Beacon, Qrow gritted his teeth, Jaune glanced to his teammates, Eliane notched an arrow, SG-1 and the Marines took aim, Ozpin gripped his cane in the courtyard, and Ruby let out a breath beside her friends. Each and every one forced themselves to ignore the flare, narrowing their eyes onto the forest.

Below their feet, the ground began to rumble ominously. A couple students whispered quakes, but this was no tectonic activity. It was something much worse. The shaking of the soil grew and grew, joining together with a rising crescendo of stomping feet and crashing trees, loud enough to be heard even from as far away as they were. It was a sound few people heard and lived to share the tale.

The forest's underbrush collapsed utterly, spilling out a vast tide of bloodthirsty flesh. In a seconds time; hundreds of Grimm burst out from the trees, jaws snapping as they charged down the open plain. There were so many the ground was blotted out, appearing not unlike a tsunami of snarling black monsters. Nothing stood in the way of the Horde's headfirst charge towards Beacon.

Gunfire boomed in response; laser batteries, autocannons, and missile volleys blossomed from the Atlesian defense lines, impacting the creatures of darkness in a heartbeat. The outer edges of the Grimm tide vanished under the deluge of firepower, many of the beasts dying before they could make a sound. A cloud of choking ash rose from the impact points, but their many brethren simply charged through the newborn firestorms without a moments hesitation. Despite the heavy casualties, the monsters were gaining ground.

The huntsmen were more conservative with their fire, but no less dangerous. Cracks of gunshots boomed out, many taking down a Grimm per shot. At one spot Pyrrha had Miló in rifle form, hitting a snarling Beowolf or Ursa every time she pulled the trigger, while Jaune and Ren waited beside her with weapons in hand and grimaces on their faces. Nora was like the boys for a moment, until she ah'd in delight. Grabbing Magnhild, she aimed the grenade launcher at a high angle and fired; the explosives arched over the approaching horde to land into a mass of them, not unlike a mortar.

"Smart idea." Jaune complimented over the din, leaving out how hard it was for her to miss. A sidelong glance showed him Eliane notching a fresh arrow to fire, features wrinkled in effort as she let it fly.

A short distance away a similar event was happening, Ruby picking off individual Grimm with Crescent Rose while Blake took potshots towards the horde. Neither Weiss nor Yang were happy with doing nothing so far, but the blonde found the will to grin.

"You know, I just thought of something!" she almost bellowed, in time for Blake to back off in order to reload.

"What?!" Weiss yelled back.

"Did anybody check the forecast today!?" Yang called out, the last part of her question almost unheard when a bomb went off.

"Is that important right now?!" Blake shouted, rubbing her ears before she took aim once again.

"Cuz the weathers looking Grimm!" she finished, laughing when both girls paused to shoot her a glare.

While Ruby wanted to roll her eyes at her sister (at least), she was too busy to care at the moment. The red toned girl grimaced as she aligned her sights, picking off one snarling Grimm after another. After lining up on a roaring Berigel she fired again, curling her lip when her headshot only staggered the beast. But then the bipedal monster jerked back again with a second part of its skull blasted off, turning to ash just as a very different sounding report reached her ears.

00000

"Tango down." the Marine behind the M107 reported, barely reacting to the three meter tall beast falling over. Instead he swiveled to another target, training the anti-material rifle onto another monster.

"Good work Barnes, but watch your targets. There's more bandits than bullets." Reynolds warned beside him, the M60 barking in controlled bursts. The two Marines and the Airmen at his flanks had G3SG/1 rifles firing at the Grimm, which to their chagrin had significantly less impact than the .50 cal. The M2 was silent thus far, the Colonels agreeing the enemy needed to be closer first so its magic could work to the fullest.

In the meantime, O'Neill and Carter lent their own fire towards the incoming monsters, the latter clicking something to extend her weapon's barrel considerably before she began shooting. O'Neill had it marginally easier, thanks to the ever convenient bipod on the M249. Although his weapon was loaded with a four hundred round ammo bag, he was careful to fire only in short bursts. He told himself it was because the almost unmoving gun was a pain to reload, and certainly not that Reynolds grossly understated the situation.

"Ah gimme a break." he muttered under his breath. The cause of his ire was a lupine Grimm staggering under his repeated gunfire, but for some annoying reason it refused to die easily.

"These things are tough." Carter said loudly, though her words were drowned by the constant gunfire. The M107's next shot was particularly loud, though a Grimm slain instantly was worth the noise.

"I coulda told you that ma'am." Walsch told the Major, applying only the minimum necessary amount of respect to his tone. None of the officers were in the mood to admonish him; instead he paused from shooting to rise to a crouch, heft an AT-4 to his shoulder to zero in on a large monster. The subsequent back blast washed over the two teams, the missile streaking out to land in the middle of a pack.

Teal'c hugged the shotgun close, glowering down the plain. "Their numbers do not matter. We have prevailed against greater foes, mere beasts will not defeat us this day."

Daniel sucked in a breath, but he held his tongue. Now wasn't the time for a history lesson he picked up during his foray, specifically the part at how hordes of this size were typically the death of cities. Instead the doctor readied his weapon alongside the others for when the Grimm came close enough. Based on their current rate, that wouldn't be long.

00000

Despite their horrendous losses, the Grimm kept advancing. So far the main weight of the beasts were directed towards the Atlesian lines, but a trio of massive Deathstalkers crashing out of the forest announced a shift in their priorities. The horde being thrown against the soldiers guns lessened considerably, timed with a fresh mass of Grimm rising from the treetops in a fluid wave. Specially designed laser batteries from the defense lines and Beacon itself blew dozens of Nevermore and Gryphons out of the sky, a drop in the bucket in terms of their numbers.

Behind the gathered huntsmen Glynda Goodwitch stood up straight, raising her crop to the incoming Grimm like a stone before a hurricane. Though gunfire threatened to drown her out, her voice managed to echo over the line.

"Prepare for close quarters! Now stay together, and remember your training!" she bellowed calmly.

Someone, it was impossible to tell who, shouted something else. "For Beacon!"

"For Beacon!" another yelled, then two, then a dozen, then even more.

"For Beacon! _For Beacon!_ "

The two words kept repeating, ensnaring more students in its defiant hold. Though the blonde was miffed at losing control, a single look at Port, Oobleck, and the rest of the mature huntsmen encouraging the chanting made her sigh.

Ren, Pyrrha, Nora, and Jaune glanced to each other, at the same time as Yang, Blake, Weiss, and Ruby breathlessly did the same. Neither teams would ever realize it, but in that moment the eight friends grinned in unison. When the call arrived for the last time, all eight friends added their voices to the nearly three hundred others, all shouting the same thing at the tops of their lungs.

" _FOR BEACON!_ "

As one, the trench boiled over to spill out Grimm hunters; unlike the disciplined Atlas lines, each huntsman was unique from their clothes to their weapons, putting little effort to stay in a cohesive formation. The sole detail they all shared was the roaring enthusiasm to meet the beasts threatening their Academy blade to claw. The charging Grimm responded the hunters in kind, the two sides careening right at each other with wild abandon. Viewed from above, it was like a tide of color rushing towards an all encompassing black flood.

Ruby pulled ahead of the uneven charge, switching to her scythe mid sprint. Holding the blade to her side, she waited until she was almost upon the Grimm to leap into the air. Glaring at a snapping Ursa, the diminutive girl let out a war cry as she swung her treasured weapon in a wide arc, claiming the first melee kill of the battle.

Her kill was the first contact of the two opposing forces colliding, impacting with the power of a vast explosion. Dozens of Grimm died in seconds. Many huntsmen were sent flying away by the monsters' blows, some screaming, some not. Many more piled in, hacking, bashing, and slashing with skill and considerable rage. However, new Grimm left the cover of the forest to enter the fray in ever increasing numbers. There were more than the snapshotted photos from orbit saw, a great many more than the battle's planners anticipated.

Perhaps too many.

00000

Unlike her sister or comrades, Winter wasn't having a good time. In fact, she could reasonably claim she was having a bad day.

Carving up yet another Beowolf, she yelled, "Where's the repair crews!?"

Four hundred Atlesian soldiers entrenched with over a thousand full time Vale city militia (twice that of part time reservists) packing a rather surprising quantity of munitions sounded like a recipe for victory, on paper. In practice, the mayor had butted heads with Ironwood over deployments; he wanted to send every professional soldier they had to preemptively burn the forest down, while the General had to repeatedly talk him into reinforcing Vale first. Which would've been a fantastic idea, if the Grimm hadn't sent a quartet of enormous Goliaths to smash through the walls. Three blinding volleys from the ships put an end to them quickly, but the damage was done.

Hence Winter was in damage control mode, via stabbing anything that came through the breach, while the Valesian work crews apparently dawdled at the other holes. After eighteen hours of squabbling with her own officers, barking orders, fitful sleep, talking down overeager citizens, and now holding off a breach with nothing but a squad and her rapier, she was at the end of her patience.

"Get a move on!" she yelled again, slicing the head off a Beowolf and stabbing an Ursa in two sloppy motions. Whatever internal criticisms she had could wait, she had to hold this breach or else Vale would suffer more civilian casualties. Hundreds, maybe thousands of lives were resting on her shoulders, and one mistake could cost them everything. Failure was simply not an option. She had to admit though, killing Grimm herself was oddly cathartic.

Her job became far more difficult when a forty meter King Taijitu slithered into the killzone, the giant serpent rising to glare at the humans. While her men quailed at the enormous monster, Winter just slumped.

"I should've gone on leave when I had the chance." she muttered ruefully.

Then, two very unexpected things happened. A missile streaked overhead to hit the King Taijitu in the face, the snake whipping its head back as it let out a baleful roar. Seconds later, a pair of figures leapt from the top of the broken wall to land on the Grimm's damaged head, hanging on tight. For a second Winter thought she was about to witness an imaginative form of suicide, but instead the colossal beast twitched once before it went limp. The two jumped from the falling monster right as it impacted, the ground briefly rumbling as a result.

They landed right in front of her while the King Taijitu turned to ash, allowing the white haired Commander to get a good look at them. It took a lot of effort for her to halt a sneer at the two faunus, who were peering back to the opening with wide grins.

"Dear, I'm glad we came to visit now." the female of the pair said, twirling a scuffed pistol while a cutlass trailed along the ground. Petite in figure and clad in thick clothes, the newest volunteer was clearly in high spirits.

"Oh yeah." agreed the rumbling male, a giant of a faunus with a bushy beard and an ill fitting shirt. Similar to her, he was rubbing his steel covered knuckles with glee.

As Winter opened her mouth to congratulate them (hiding her copious distaste), several Beowolves charged through the opening towards them. Just as she jerked her rapier up, unusual sounding gunfire slammed into the beasts, staggering the three monsters in their tracks. The two faunus immediately whipped around to attack the Grimm, but when Winter took a step forward herself, a leather clad man blew past her in a blur. She caught only a glimpse of blond hair before he jumped to swing a war axe down upon the third Beowolves' head, killing it in sync with his impromptu allies.

"Thanks for the save." the large faunus said to the new arrival, all three turning to walk back to the new defense line while the ash settled.

"Its what I do. You two got names?" the blond man asked cheerfully, resting the axe shaft on his shoulder. To her quiet irritation, all three were closing in on her.

The faunus woman tapped on her chest. "I'm Kali, this is Ghira." she pointed towards her husband, who somehow blushed at her gesture. "You?"

"I'm Taiyang. You can call me Tai if you want." he replied easily, coming to a stop to glance at the Atlesian. "And you?"

"I'm Commander Winter Schnee." she answered perfunctorily.

Immediately all three snapped to her, eyes widening in surprise.

"Schnee?" Ghira repeated. Winter was about to confirm her heritage when he spoke again. "Do you have a family member named Weiss?"

"Wait a sec." Taiyang raised a hand, his finger switching between the faunus. "My daughters have a teammate named Weiss too."

"Do they also have one named Blake?" Kali questioned, her expression lighting up.

"Sure do. Does your daughter have a pair of friends called Ruby and Yang?" he grinned in disbelief when both Ghira and Kali nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh no." Winter slumped again, mentally connecting the dots. The odds of four random strangers having family in the same team were astronomical, but so was finding an alien base on the moon.

A cleared throat made the Commander to twist around slowly, ready to verbally flay the next trooper who gave her bad news. But instead, she was caught off guard by someone she never thought she'd see again.

"Commander Winter, good to see you." Major Washington greeted, an M4 pointed to the sky in one hand, and a trio of heavily armed teammates at his flanks. Poking between his legs was a white and black corgi, tongue hanging out in a close approximation of a grin. "Small world, don't you think so?"

Winter felt her eye twitching at the mounting events, distantly aware of the trio going silent behind her in curiosity, likely because of his literally otherworldly appearance. Whatever remark Washington felt like saying next was abandoned when his eyes bulged, jerking his M4 around while one of his men hefted a launcher.

"Tango, twelve'oh'clock!" he shouted, the four connected warriors twisting around to face the newest Grimm in the breach.

00000

A narrow dodge let the red toned girl plant her scythe onto a Grimm's torso, blowing it away and propelling her outstretched blade fast enough to cut a Beowolf in half. Mid flight she swung again, taking a wing off a screeching Nevermore, while she landed onto a Boarbatusk's back. Another downwards swing and she was on the ground again, avoiding its death throes and sending more of the beasts back where they came from.

She was alone in her attacks, breaking from her friends... she abruptly realized she didn't quite remember when she split from her team. Shaking her head, she continued her task.

Everything in Ruby's mind was scoured away, all that mattered to the red toned girl was making sure she didn't hit somebody by mistake. Slashing at an Ursa, beheading a snarling Berigel, firing into a small King Taijitu's eyes, she attacked and attacked and attacked. Her lungs were burning, muscles were screaming, and her throat was raw from the many cries, but still Ruby kept up the pressure. She knew any less would cost them everything.

Several dozen meters away Jaune ducked below the charging Deathstalker's pincer, jerking his shield overhead for Eliane to use it as a springboard. With a yell he shoved upwards, flinging the stoic girl above the massive horde to come down right on top of the scorpion, her sword thrusted downwards with all the considerable power she could muster. The blade pierced the monster's thick carapace instantly, the entire creature collapsing with a powerful thump as it died.

Recovering quickly, the blond thrusted Crocea Mors into a snapping Ursa's maw, punching through the thin part of its skull. Even as it fell to ash he was already whipping around, intending to meet a charging Boarbatusk the size of a sedan. Just as he began to slash however, a red and bronze fighter landed on its back to force it down, the porcine Grimm's squealing roar cut off when she stabbed it in the base of its neck. In one smooth motion she jumped from the collapsing beast to land beside him, bashing a Beowolf in the face to let him skewer it.

"Nice one!" Jaune shouted, trying a shield bash of his own on a man sized Deathstalker.

"You too!" Pyrrha yelled back, blocking a clawed swipe to stab the offending Grimm.

When Jaune took a blow, he suddenly realized something as he took the arm off another Beowolf. "Where's Nora and Ren?!"

"They're-" Pyrrha halted, only just bringing up her shield in time to block a screeching Gryphon's claws. "I lost track of them!"

Jaune cursed as he finished off an insect type Grimm, whirling around at a familiar sounding roar. Pyrrha did the same, the two of them staring down a furious looking Berigel just a few meters away. Grimacing together, they raised their weapons to lunge.

00000

Meanwhile Yang cursed too, albeit under her breath. She kept looking for Ruby in the swirling melee, but she found nothing but other huntsmen and Grimm. Punching and blasting one black monster after another, she almost didn't realize Blake was at her back, not until a shadow form appeared in front of her next kill, a distraction so she could get to get her target. Neither did she know Weiss was closing in on them, announcing her presence by sending out a giant wave of ice in front of some downed huntsmen.

Clumping together, the trio put themselves back to back while they struck. Grimacing at a Nevermore screeching overhead, Yang shouted. "Anybody see Ruby?!"

Before either girl could reply, a large Deathstalker had an explosion go off in its face, staggering the beast for two huntsmen to race up. When a Beowolf jumped in front of the sight, one of the last people Yang expected to snarl was Weiss, the white toned girl stabbing the lupine monster in the gut before drawing the blade up. Unfortunately the offender died at the same time as the scorpion, another immediately taking its place.

Blake swept the flat edge of her sword to backhand a Boarbatusk, knocking the Grimm back far enough to get caught in a wide hammer swing. Nora was still moving even as she bore down on them, blocking a fresh swipe with her weapons haft. The Beowolf responsible would have tried clawing the ginger again, if a pair of green painted blades didn't leap over the lupine monster to jab into its eyes, killing the Grimm as Ren flipped down beside the gathering. In a split second both longtime friends had guns out to spray gunfire at the closest enemies.

"Have you guys seen Pyrrha or Jaune!?" Nora yelled, punctuating her sentence by blowing up a Grimm covered in wiggling tentacles.

"Nope! Seen Ruby!?" Yang shouted, uppercutting a Beowolf so Weiss could stab it.

"No!" Ren answered loudly, features wrinkled as he slashed at a Berigel his size. Only Weiss didn't curse under her breath at the news, choosing to put extra strength into her next series of stabs.

As her foe died, the white toned girl suddenly realized she, all of them in fact, were completely surrounded by Grimm. After frantically whipping her head around, she sighed when she located Beacon's tower, right before her heart clenched at how close it was. The six friends were cut off, with no one in sight to help. And the Grimm kept coming.

00000

For a moment it seemed as if the horde was tapering off, and the Atlesian Commander signaled the four companies in the trenches to ready for a push. Although the troops were out of breath, they quickly reloaded their smoking rifles as fast as possible. The Grimm attacking them may have been running out, but in exchange more and more were going after the huntsmen, succeeding in flanking them by dint of sheer numbers. The white armored soldiers would correct that soon enough.

The plan died along with a dozen troopers, the handful leaving the trenches diving back down to escape the rattling gunfire. Many weren't lucky, sent whipping around to collapse with red splashing their dirtied armor. A few dropped to wail, clutching wounded limbs or bodies. No orders were needed to shift fire back the way they were, their relief plan aborted. Only this time, hostile gunfire and missiles peppered the lines, increasing in intensity and accuracy.

Ironwood clenched a railing as he saw the event, suppressing a flash of anger. White Fang forces surged from the forest in uneven clumps, hundreds of the white clad faunus sprinting out to fire wildly at the Atlesian lines. The professional in the General was disgusted by their advance; they moved like a collection of packs instead of a unified force, plenty of fighters being herded along by more disciplined members. All they seemed to share was the enthusiasm to kill the soldiers before them, and the munitions to make it happen.

Several Bullheads rose from the trees, covered in White Fang markings and carrying jury rigged weapons, which rained fire down upon the troops' heads. A few armored trucks carried some fighters into battle, but the greater concern was a line of five Paladins bursting from the trees, stomping alongside their new comrades. He saw at once they were P-290s, not so long ago the most advanced mechs the Atlas military had to offer.

"Thieves." he growled under his breath, the same thing most of the soldiers now wished to hiss.

Ironwood gritted his teeth when the laser cannons on the sloppily repainted mechs opened fire, blasting a hole clean through the trenches. He could only guess how many soldiers just died as he watched. Meanwhile the leaders seemed to have enough training to coordinate their elements, several platoons worth of faunus bearing down on the breach. Overwatch fire took down a few attackers, but it wasn't enough by far. Even in the face of such adversity his troops still could have fended off such an assault, if they weren't outnumbered five to one.

"Sir, target saturation has reached critical." A crewman announced, her fingers dancing over the holographic display.

"Major Rouge is requesting immediate fire support." another told him, his voice urgent.

The glass dome gave Ironwood a commanding view of the battlefield, letting him see how bad things were getting. It pained him to keep the ships back, but he needed to have the bulk of the enemy forces engaged before he unleashed his full might, minimizing the chances of exposing a weakness. A fresh horde of aerial Grimm rising from the trees made him grip the railing even more, his hackles rising when he saw the creatures ignoring the faunus Bullheads.

"Vale?" he checked, needing to make sure.

"Red Two and Red Three have deployed droids, they have multiple confirmed breaches sir." the first crewman reported unhappily.

"Nevermore closing from grid two two seven." yet another informed nervously.

Ironwood made up his mind. "Change course twenty degrees left, engines ahead fifty percent. Spool up all guns, begin android activation, and get me a targeting solution. Tell Red Four to follow us in."

A gentle sway was his only sign the colossal airship was moving, the chaos filled ground beneath him crawling away while the many systems around him hummed louder than before. Gripping the railing, Ironwood mentally berated himself for not bringing in additional forces when he had the chance, even though logically speaking he had no way to know. Who on Remnant could have foreseen such an event occurring? If not for the Earthers' warning they would be even worse off.

For a moment he wished he had one of those 'Nukes' supposedly carried on the spaceship, although they never took the time to explain what the things were. He gathered it was a weapon (a bomb most likely) but for whatever reason the Earth people were leery of bringing the topic up. Just one could turn this battle arou-

The entire ship violently rocked to the side, his grip unexpectedly saving him. Several crewmen weren't so lucky, being tossed aside like toys. Gritting his teeth, Ironwood suddenly realized the ship was listing.

"Report!" he shouted.

A panting crewman frantically went over his interface, visibly recoiling at what the display told him. "General, flight pod seven is destroyed, pods three to nine damaged!"

"Casualties unknown. Power fluctuations across the left wing."

"Laser batteries unresponsive, guidance systems are scrambled. We just got declawed."

"What hit us?!" he demanded.

When the ship jerked again he was ready this time, bracing against the powerful forces threatening to whip him around. Clanging rang through the airship's superstructure, the reinforced metal groaning in protest. He almost didn't catch the humming systems dying one after another, the power being either redirected or cut off.

"We have an ID!" a crewman bellowed, proceeding without orders. "High intensity laser cannon, Guisarme class!"

"But, there aren't any dreadnoughts in Vale-" Ironwood stopped mid sentence, eyes widening in realization.

The start of a curse died on his lips when the ship was hit a third time, this attack causing the nose of the vessel to dip forward. The ever present whine of the anti-gravity Dust pods began to weaken, going silent one by one. And with their end, came the airship's.

"Brace yourselves!" Ironwood shouted, throwing his arm out to hit the intercom. "This is General Ironwood, all hands abandon ship. We have suffered catastrophic damage and are going down. Your orders are to go to Beacon and reinforce the defenders there as much as possible. It was an honor ladies and gentlemen."

00000

At their lookout, Cinder lowered her arm. Briefly rubbing the spots out of her eyes, the woman glanced once again to the setup beside their observation post. It was Hale's ace in the hole: the elongated cylinder twice the size of a bus was dragged along by several crawlers, and it was a mess of patchwork metal, exposed piping, and kilometers of cables. Not until the groaning hydraulics lifted the enormous laser cannon did she think it would even work, but once a beam of powerful red light lanced the warship all her doubts vanished.

"Well, I'm officially impressed." Emerald nodded, wide eyed as Mercury clapped to the sight they beheld.

A mighty warship, the symbol of Atlas' power, was belching smoke as it streamed towards the ground, like a titan falling for the last time. Though she saw many smaller craft leaving the stricken vessel, they posed little threat in comparison. Several were intercepted by flying Grimm during their flight, sending the airships crashing alongside their greater kin. Even over the din of battle she could hear the roaring cheer from the fighting White Fang army, while the remaining ship abruptly veered off course before it too was targeted. With their absence Grimm and modified Bullheads now prowled, taking the skies from the beleaguered defenders.

But her enjoyment of their defeat was dampened considerably, thanks to her cruelly smirking master.

" _Good_." Salem said lowly, an unsettling grin on her bone white features. Hale managed to occupy himself by sending orders over an antique radio, rather than face the inhuman being's praise.

Cinder gulped down her unease. She was about to open her mouth to request new instructions, but without warning Salem ghosted away from them, heading into the swirling melee at a sedate pace. She didn't bother giving orders, leaving her cringing in indecision.

Should Cinder enter the battle alongside her, bringing the full wrath of her Maiden powers crashing down on these victims? Or should she stay here, a reserve in case her master called upon her for a more important task? Neither Emerald nor Mercury could offer advice, both her underlings wracked with the same indecisiveness as her. Unnoticed by the trio, the tip of a parasol tapped on the hull, unmoving.

00000

Tangentially aware of the slackening fire from the Atlas lines, O'Neill looked up from reloading the M249 to wrinkle his expression. "Ah crap."

"The ship is the core of Ironwood's tactical plan." Teal'c informed, his flat gaze tracking the falling airship. Whoever was still controlling the stricken vessel tried to put it down in front of the defenses, though ever increasing number of White Fang attackers were closing in.

"Okay, we're in trouble now." Daniel muttered, firing off the last couple shots from his P90 so he could reload.

Carter stood up from her stomach, replacing a magazine while she shortened her weapon's barrel. "Colonel, we have to get to that ship."

"Why?" O'Neill turned to ask reservedly.

"There's still dozens to hundreds of crewmen who need our help sir." she began, grimacing while the Marines reloading their weapons paused to glance sharply.

"We should not abandon allies while we still can help." Teal'c spoke up in her defense, causing O'Neill to wince; the Jaffa knew exactly how to push his buttons.

"That too." she nodded, switching between them and the encroaching foe. "I was also thinking about the thousand plus combat androids inside that ship. Atlas uses them for heavy combat operations, like this."

"Carter, I can guess but I need to make sure." O'Neill lifted a hand as he gave her a weighted stare. "Can you reenact Attack of the Clones' few good parts?"

"I won't give hundred percent odds sir. But in your place, I'd lay money on me." Carter rolled her shoulders, letting out a quiet breath.

"I say we go for it, a bunch of killer robots would be good right now." Daniel piped up, rising to a crouch beside her. Teal'c darting over to grab his staff caused O'Neill to roll his eyes, slamming the cover back over the ammo feed.

"Congrats Reynolds, you win the mess hall pot and the bingo chart." he announced, rising to the edge of the pit.

"That'd be great if we get out of this alive." the Marine Colonel shook his head, hardening his features when he turned to his team. "Alright, prep the fifty. Ma Deuce is done waiting."

Daniel shook his head while he joined the rest of SG-1, the entire team going over their weapons one more time. "Worked in a military base for years and I still haven't figured why they call it that."

"I do not know either." Teal'c admitted.

"Long story, I'll tell you later." Carter replied to the both of them.

O'Neill took point, slumping with an exhale. "Okie dookie, let's go save the day again."

The Colonel clambered over the sandbags and took off, Carter, Teal'c, and Daniel following in a furtive sprint. A dozen paces out and all four nearly simultaneously whipped towards a squad of White Fang troopers, unleashing a storm of lead upon the surprised targets.

Catching movement from the corner of his vision, the Jaffa of the party jerked around to unload his AA-12 into the charging monsters. The two Beowolves about to lunge staggered, paws raised defensively as automatic buckshot dug into their thick hides. One dissolved into ash just as his precious weapon clicked empty, leaving behind a recovering and very furious monster just a few meters away. Rather than panic, Teal'c immediately reached for his belt to snatch a grenade (internally he smiled at the explosive he once thought useless), drawing his arm back. He popped the pin when it was at its furthest, and with all of his might he hurled the tiny bomb towards the Grimm.

By an odd coincidence, the Beowolf had just opened its teeth filled maw to roar when he threw, giving a perfect opening for the grenade to dive into. The Grimm halted its snarl to reflexively gulp, the beast going unusually still in very humanlike surprise. It suddenly jerked with a muffled blast, the creature's entire body twisting as a patter of ichor left its open maw. Teal'c raised his brow when the lupine Orac fell, turning to ash just as it hit the ground.

"Teal'c! Let's go!" shouted Carter, the cue for him to sprint off after his gunfire spewing friends.

Reynolds watched the conflagration for a moment, grimacing as he slapped a new belt in place. "Bring up the fifty!"

Theoretically, one man could haul an M2 Browning a short distance. But despite their bravado, the Marines were a practical minded group, who regarded teamwork as an important virtue (translation: roping others into helping whenever possible). This meant the quartet of sharpshooters set their weapons aside to sprint to the weapon, the Airman with them willingly taking the lead. With a combined grunt the four men lifted the machine gun, quickly carrying it to the prearranged location facing the Atlas military's fire zone.

Just as they set the M2 down one man glanced to the side, immediately recoiling in terror. "Oh shit!"

Reynolds had seconds of warning, just racking the bolt into place as a roaring Ursa reached their dugout. As fast as he could possibly move, the Marine Colonel whipped the M60 off the ground and began spraying; mid charge the bear Grimm halted, cutting off a roar as its body jerked back. The LMG bucked wildly in Reynolds' hands, the Colonel barely able to control the wild gun. It took all his strength to keep the barrel aimed at the nightmarish creature being driven away. Finally the shredded Ursa fell back to collapse, though it took a few seconds for Reynolds to notice.

Ears ringing, he panted as the Ursa went still, then crumbled into ash before his eyes. Shakily turning to his frozen team, he gulped.

"What're you waiting for?" he demanded, by an act of God keeping a stutter out of his voice. Emboldened by his false bravery, the four men scrambled to get the Browning set up, and seconds later a satisfying rack of the slide confirmed it was ready.

00000

Again Ruby heard the unfamiliar reports, but this time there was a continuous stream of the loud gunshots instead of just a few. Slicing a Beowolf in half, she was about to charge into a fresh pack of Grimm when they began jerking back, a couple dying immediately. Stunned for a moment, the red toned girl watched in awe how a cone of dangerous fireflies came into existence, which ruthlessly tore apart any smaller Grimm it caught. Even a larger Deathstalker withered under the firepower, claws raised defensively while chunks of its carapace were flaked off.

A whistle of a ricochet by her ear told Ruby she had places to be, and a twist put her in the face of a malevolently staring King Taijitu. Both Grimm and huntress stared at each other for many long seconds in raw surprise, neither willing to make a move just yet. The King Taijitu unexpectedly whipped back, screeching until a human leapt atop its head to stab, silencing the monster instantly. In mid air it dissolved, its slayer falling with a sword in shield in hand. He hit the ground hard, but at the last second he somehow slowed down significantly, his armor visibly tugging on his body.

"Thanks!" he called out. Ruby was about to ask when a javelin flew by, hitting a Beowolf in the chest to stagger it. She turned to attack, but before she could take a step Pyrrha raced by her, jumping to slam the edge of her shield into the Grimm's face. She tore her weapon out of the monster as it fell, whipping around to block another strike.

Blasting a small Boarbatusk, Ruby closed in on the pair to join them, forming an impromptu party to defend each other. More Grimm kept racing towards them, each one meeting a sharp blade.

"Guys okay?!" Ruby called, beheading an Ursa.

"Good, you?!" Pyrrha replied, deflecting a barbed tail to cut the limb off.

"Could be better!" she shrugged as she took the leg off a spider Grimm.

"We could not be surrounded for one!" Jaune snapped, blocking a clawed swipe before landing two slashes on another monster.

Pyrrha jumped with her shield raised, swatting a Nevermore out of the air to send it sprawling to the ground. A heartbeat after in landed, she and Jaune both drove their blades down upon its flailing body, skewering it instantly.

"Well who's fault is that?" she snarled sarcastically, ripping her javelin out hard enough to tear away a chunk of dissolving flesh. It took the redhead several seconds to notice the silent looks her friends now gave her, causing the young woman to tap herself on the forehead. "I'm sorry. I think I've hung out with Carolina too much."

"Just a little." Jaune winced, making her roll her eyes. Ruby was seconds away from a witty line (she hoped it was witty anyway), but then a deafening boom echoed over the battlefield.

All three paused to peer at the source, their throats clenching at the enormous Atlas warship crashing into the ground. It went slow enough so keep the debris cloud to a minimum, but nevertheless a cloud of dirt was flung upwards when it crashed, digging a fresh pit onto the scarred ground. The airship's fall heralded a sizable host of new problems, in the form of several enormous flocks of Nevermore darkening the skies.

00000

Wincing for the umpteenth time, his prosthetic hand massaged the growing lump on his head, only to jerk back with a fresh gasp. A wipe of his sleeve cleared the newest sheen of sweat from his forehead, fortunately no longer laced with blood from the cut on his brow. Neither his vision nor hearing were woozy, although some residual dizziness remained from the railing he smacked face first. He could definitely say he didn't have a concussion, one of few bits of good news he had left.

Panting in effort, Ironwood grimaced at the hazy emergency lighting beating down upon him. The light was designed to provide illumination without blinding injured personnel, although the flickering was grating on his nerves. Nevertheless he continued to lift the hunk of fallen plating off a crewman, flipping it over to let him check the man pinned underneath. When he stuck his fleshy fingers to the crewman's throat, a sigh of relief escaped the General, unlike the last five people he tried.

Even better the helmeted man groaned on his own, stirring to try to leave the ruined bridge. Ironwood grabbed his sides, gently sitting him up to rest against a console. A pained gasp left the injured soldier, the lower half of his face wracked in pain.

"Easy, easy." he soothed, forcing him still. "Can you hear me soldier? What's your name?" he questioned, internally regretting not learning the rest of the crewman's identities. The only one he sought out beforehand was Commander Rouge, who was busy commanding the ground forces. Of course, he didn't expect the enemy to have one of their own laser cannons.

The man panted, clutching a patch of red his side. "Ensign, Nero Cane..."

"Take a breath Ensign Cane. Think you can walk?" Ironwood inquired tightly, looking over the wounded man's body again with doubt.

"Think so, sir." he gasped when he tried sitting up, but despite the General's insistent pushing he managed to drag himself up the panel. As much as Ironwood wanted to find a quiet spot for him, he knew he couldn't.

Their time ran out when he heard gunfire in the hall right outside the bridge, coupled with several shouting voices. Darting over to snatch a discarded sidearm, he roughly shoved the weapon into the Ensign's hands.

"Watch your fire Ensign, and make every shot count." he commanded. He was a hairsbreadth from adding "save a bullet for yourself." but he decided to hold his tongue. Of all people, he knew how valuable hope could be.

Cane's quick nod caused the General to draw his own revolver, briefly popping the wheel out to check before he raised towards the entrance. The rowdy shouts coming closer were no friendlies; no Atlas soldier would sound so gleeful at the devastation around them. Aiming his weapon at the door, Ironwood narrowed his sense in anticipation. Fresh gunfire was a distraction he didn't need, so he tuned the noises out.

Finally the enemy exposed themselves; a single man clad in a White Fang outfit, jerking back the way he came with a dented Atlesian made rifle held at his hip. Just as Ironwood began to pull the trigger, a bizarre _fwoop-wash_ sound rang off the walls. An orange bolt flew from out of sight to punch clean through the faunus, leaving behind a puff of acrid smoke. The White Fang trooper was blasted back, dropping with a cry of pain.

Blinking in astonishment, Ironwood nearly shot the next arrival when they burst into the entrance, the new arrival needing a second to realize who had a weapon trained on her.

"Major Carter?" Ironwood exclaimed, the blonde darting inside while he lowered his revolver.

A heartbeat after her several more showed up; Daniel grimacing with a patch of blood on his arm, O'Neill grumbling as he moved to cover the entrance, and lastly Teal'c, striding through at a sedate pace. Unlike his firearm equipped team, he had a staff in one hand, and a thick machete in the other. A flip of his hand transformed the blade into a gleaming short rifle, which he aimed at the door along with the alien weapon.

O'Neill kept the machine gun aimed while he peered over his shoulder, panting from effort. "Hiya General, I think there's something wrong with your ship."

"Not that I mind the rescue, but what're you doing here?" Ironwood questioned confusedly, switching between SG-1.

"Long story short, came to help." Daniel said quickly, slinging his P90 away to huddle over Cane. "You okay buddy?"

The Ensign was grimacing, but a peek towards the General made him slacken up enough for the archeologist to inspect his wounds. "First Aid kit, over there."

"I'm glad you're here. Alright, what's our extraction plan?" Ironwood checked while Daniel darted towards an indicated panel.

Simultaneously Carter and O'Neill froze, the former halting above a still active panel. "Um, sir..."

"You, you do have a way out of the crash, right? We're surrounded by hostiles, we can't stay here." Ironwood questioned, raising his brow between the Earthers.

"We planned to improvise an escape route." Teal'c stated simply.

The stately General felt his jaw drop, necessitating O'Neill to shrug hopefully. "It's all good, honestly. We're good at winging it."

"You... came to help... and didn't think of a way to get out?" A variety of muscles twitched on his face, his arms held apart as he seemed to plea. His attention was fixated on the two men, not the woman activating a display.

"If there's one thing we're good at above all else, its making up stuff on the fly. We kinda have to, our main plans never work. Now..." Daniel grimaced, cracking open the kit beside the wounded crewman. "You might wanna take off the headwear."

Shouts caused the hastily formed party to twist, four weapons brought to bear on the door. Ensign Cane was one of them, but Daniel wasn't; he felt around the quietly groaning crewman until he found the seals on his all encompassing helmet, undoing the latches.

"Okay, I'll need to..." he trailed off when the helm came apart, ignoring the black displays of the interior. Blinking, he stared at the sweat soaked black hair underneath now exposed to open air, and the pair of short floppy ears atop his head.

"Daniel?" Carter twisted around from the panel she was hunched over, halting her typing to peer in concern.

"Huh, weird." he admitted, causing Ironwood to finally notice his subordinate.

"That's not gonna be a problem, will it?" Cane asked dangerously, suppressing a scowl.

"Ah, no." Daniel clapped, nodding to himself. "Okay, let's-"

Staff and M249 fired at the same time, shredding the first luckless faunus to come into sight. Whatever allies the fallen trooper had backed off, yelling incomprehensibly in alarm. Now they were frightened, O'Neill pawned a grenade from his belt to pull the pin. A single toss had it rebound off a wall, creating a fresh bout of screaming before a wave of debris blasted out from the entrance.

"Hope you can deliver on your miracle Carter, 'cause that was my last grenade." he said calmly, raising his weapon again.

"Throwing one down the maw of a Beowolf seemed to be a more effective use of explosives." Teal'c opined, a hint of a smirk on his features.

"Yeah yeah, get lucky with one toss and now you're amazing." O'Neill rolled his eyes.

"Miracle?" Ironwood repeated, frowning as he glanced to the blonde.

A few beeps from the terminal was his answer, the Major grinning in delight. "Got it sir."

"Got what?" he demanded.

"You're a lifesaver Sam, now come on..." Daniel looped an arm over the Ensign's torso, the man groaning as he supported him upright.

"What did you do?" Ironwood snapped.

"Hacked your computers. I have full access to all ship systems." she reported, disregarding his slackened jaw in favor of typing further. "Good news and great news sir."

"Hit me." O'Neill ordered, likewise unmindful of the General's sputtering.

"Seventy percent of the android stocks are functional, we can send them out now. And." A mischievous grin crossed her features. "There's a pair of active Paladins in the hold, two seventy models. Like those big robots we saw coming in, but they're two seaters."

"Can we operate them?" Teal'c questioned immediately, ahead of everyone else.

Cane wheezed, catching their attentions. "They have, an AI assist program. It'll... walk you through it."

"That should even the odds." Daniel commented brightly. "It's almost like we had a plan here."

"It does, right?" Carter gave a weak shrug in agreement.

"How have you people survived for this long!?" Ironwood all but wailed, breaking down before their eyes.

O'Neill grinned. "I'll tell you how. We get by with luck, pluck, and being ready to-"

" _Jack_." Daniel growled.

"-Do the unexpected." he finished flatly, unsmiling now. "What'd you think I was gonna say?"

"Something inappropriate." Teal'c offered, twirling the weapon he pried from its owners still warm grip.

"You guys are unbelievable." O'Neill rolled his eyes.

An insistent beep came from the console, making the blood drain from Carter's features. "Sir? Internal sensors are active."

"What now?" Ironwood groaned, letting his arm from from his sore face.

"We have... looks to be around fifty hostiles closing in from every direction. I think they're mad." she said nervously.

00000

Just beyond the Academy walls a battle was raging, one that would decide the fate of Beacon. Atlas soldiers fought alongside huntsmen from across the Four Kingdoms, while the Vale militia kept the city protected as much as they could. Unknown to most, nine people from another world had volunteered to throw in their lot to the defenses, a small yet desperately needed addition to the unready forces. Gunfire rang constantly over the walls, interspersed with the whine of laser batteries, and the shockwaves of explosions large and small. There hadn't been an event like this in years, so many he had almost forgotten what a real war sounded like. He had hoped such a thing would never come to pass again. A foolish hope, but there it was.

And right now, none of it mattered.

Ozpin stood in place with both hands on his cane, resolutely staring ahead. All around him the Creatures of Grimm prowled into place, the monsters soiling the Academy dedicated to their destruction. On the battlements several Nevermore came to roost, the birdlike monsters joined by a handful of larger Gryphons. Surrounding the headmaster were circling Beowolves, some walking on all fours while others were upright. None came closer than ten meters to the crippled human. Some would suspect fear kept the beasts away, but the truth was much simpler.

The cause of the Grimm's unusual behavior did not walk like a mortal being, she seemed to glide over the cobblestone instead. Slowly she moved, taking her dear sweet time to approach the statuesque man. And why should she rush? Ozpin ordered every available combatant out of the Academy before dawn, putting all the fighters at his disposal on the lines. There was no one left in the school who could help him, no one he could put between them. He knew this encounter was coming the moment he saw the orbital pictures, realizing he could delay this meeting no longer.

Salem halted an arms length away, her robed form towering over the old headmaster. Like him, the fires and the screams did not register to her senses, all of the distractions pushed aside for this once in a lifetime meeting.

Still keeping his defiant stare, Ozpin inclined his head back in acknowledgment.

"Here we are." said the inhuman being's soft voice, a thin smile on her beautiful yet cruel features. "How long has it been since we has saw each other? Eighty years now? It was during the Battle of Heathrow Forest if I recall correctly. You know, I still have the scar where your blade bit into my flesh."

Ozpin was silent.

"Of course, you inhabited a different human then. I'm quite surprised you haven't left this one behind yet." Salem continued to smile, one of her hands rising to lazily twist.

For a moment an Atlesian gunship roared into view, the main guns deploying to fire. A flock of Nevermore swarmed the VTOL, causing it to twist away. Several Grimm managed to tear an engine from the hull, sending the rogue machine flying away to crash into a semi repaired tower. The rest of the gunship simply fell, careening into a wall to go up into a deafening fireball. While the heat buffeted the two old foes, neither so much as broke eye contact.

"Now, you are old and frail. You have no more tricks, no more pawns. You are alone, your precious Academy is ready to fall forever. Fate allowed you to defeat my servant, but that will not happen again." she calmly taunted.

"Why now?"

Salem's dark smile shifted. "I was visited by an Old God."

At last Ozpin reacted, a split second flash over his features causing her smile to grow.

"She told me of things I never would have believed to exist before. You found powers not of this world, powers you were going to use against me. But I know of them now." Salem focused her black gaze upon the human.

"You know nothing. There are evils out there which make our struggles look like children's squabbling." he said tightly.

"They will all fall, as you have." Salem leaned her head back, gazing to the obscured sky. "Can you imagine it? All the stars of the night sky, every life bearing world they hold, and on all of them, the Creatures of Grimm. It shall be a glorious crusade to destroy every last human infesting the universe."

"You haven't won."

Salem looked to him again, baring her teeth in her vicious smile. "Not yet."

A fresh distraction grabbed both of their attentions, in the form of a chittering Deathstalker crashing through the wall a short distance away. The scorpion was clearly in pain, its pincers frantically trying to claw at its back, while the monster's ichor leaking stump of a tail thrashed. It was finally put out of its misery by a human leaping from its back to swing a hammer down, impacting hard enough to force the impromptu ride into the ground. The hammer wielding girl executed a shaky backflip to land beside the four other riders, each one recovering from the unnerving trip.

"Okay, that was a first." Blake admitted, rolling her shoulders.

"Same." Weiss nodded, sucking in a breath.

"That was fun, why haven't we done this before?" Yang smiled, letting out a woozy gasp.

"I know!" Nora tried sweeping her arms out, needing Ren to grab her to keep from falling over.

Weiss rolled her eyes, gazing in the direction of the silently watching Grimm. The incongruous sight of Ozpin and a colorless human in robes was her cue to raise her rapier, confusion on her features. Blake held her twin swords apart, Ren had both his pistols raised, Nora tapped her hammer's shaft onto her palm, and Yang brought up her gauntlets.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure that ones not in the bestiary." Ren said aloud, tensing with the others when the bizarre individual swiveled towards them.

"You're right, this is a new one." Blake confirmed.

For the first time in hours, Ozpin had fear on his expression. "All of you get out of here, now!" he barked, swiping an arm. "Don't argue, run!"

"No biggie, I got this." Yang proclaimed, launching a round from Ember Cecelia towards the creature. The glowing red projectile racing out to explode on her torso, intending to blow her away.

Only for the woman to contemptuously slap it aside. The explosive shot landed near a Beowolf, where it fizzled out. Yang blinked, jaw hanging open a little.

"Okay, maybe a biggie." she amended.

A thin smile creased her features. "I am no mere beast young hunters."

There was silence in the party, broken only by Weiss lowering her rapier to the ground in bafflement. "That's new."

"Incorrect, I am quite old. I am willing to extend you an offer." the inhuman being raised an arm, pointed in the general direction of Vale. "Leave now, and you will be spared. I now have greater plans to attend to, you should have quite some time before I come for you again."

"Huh." Yang raised a brow as she switched between her friends, all of them looking as baffled as her. "A proposal from a Grimm, they never covered this in class."

"Yeah, I dunno how to handle this. But I have an idea." Blake twirled her swords over her hands, clutching them tight in her grip.

"Technically the USAF procedure here is to call for backup." Ren noted, quickly reloading. "But personally, I like the idea of engaging at the first opportunity."

"I can get behind that." Weiss added, raising her sword.

"Wait, wait, one thing first." Nora interrupted, setting her hammer upright on the ground.

As her confused friends watched, the orange haired girl cleared her throat, and lifted both hands with the tops of her fists facing Salem. One finger from each hand was raised skyward.

"Screw you, and your hair looks stupid!" she yelled, dropping her hands to grin maniacally. Upon noticing the hollow looks focused on her, she covered a giggle. "Sorry, but I always wanted to do that to a System Lord. I think this counts."

"Um..." Weiss gulped. "I suppose, there's... worse taunts?"

Salem ceased her smiling, her black gaze now dryly annoyed. "I really didn't need another reason to kill all humans, but thank you for providing one. Now die."

The five huntsmen tensed when the Grimm surrounding them crept closer, forming a ring as the monsters encircled them. Salem just turned away from the soon to be dead humans, when a sharp crack landed across her cheek, hitting hard enough to stagger her. Sucking in a breath, she gingerly felt along the welted flesh, turning her darkening gaze upon Ozpin. A second ago he was upright with his cane in hand, but he was unable to stop himself from dropping to his knees, hissing at his pained leg.

"You shouldn't have done that." Salem said darkly.

Just as he tried crawling away she was upon him, wrapping her hand around his throat to lift him off his feet. His leg dangled while he fought the powerful arm ensnaring him, but to no avail.

"This time, stay dead." she growled, as the sounds of gunfire and clashing steel rang behind them.

00000

Swishing through the air, Qrow cleanly bisected a large Berigel, the twin halves falling apart as he slammed into the ground. Panting from effort, the ragged looking man wished more than ever he had a drink in hand.

"Look!" went an excited young voice, one he specifically came to rescue.

Sighing, Qrow lifted his head to wryly smile at the four young students. "Hey kiddies, doing okay?"

"We're fine." went one of the twins.

"Mostly." shrugged the other.

"Thanks." the largest teammate said flatly, clubbing a Beowolf upside the head.

Lopping the head off a Boarbatusk, Valentine (the only one who's name he learned) grinned happily at him. "Thanks for that."

"Its what I do kid." Qrow shrugged, unlatching his inbuilt shotgun to blast a Beowolf right behind him.

What little cheer the group had died when a resounding bellow roared over the battlefield. Sighing, Qrow ignored the suddenly terrified students to toe around, finding out the cause: a fifteen story tall Goliath, charging out of the forest at a full gallop. Waves of smaller Grimm parted before their enormous kin, allowing the monster an open shot towards Beacon, with them right in the way. He knew it was impossible to stop a full charge from a Goliath of this size, not without enormous weapons the kind of which the White Fang sent running.

"That's bad." the large teen said, gripping his mace tight.

"Really really bad." the twins chorused.

Valentine gulped, hesitantly swiveling to the older huntsman. "You... you can kill that, right?"

"Sure." Qrow replied with confidence he didn't feel, holding his sword to the side. "I'm a professional kids, this is how we do it." he told them, reading himself. The charging Goliath raised its trunk to let out another deafening roar, intending to smash aside all resistance.

Bright lights raced from the clouds, striking the Grimm dead center in the face. Fires engulfed the enormous Goliath, powerful enough to halt the monster right in its tracks. As it reared backwards a fresh roar left the monster, this one tinged by unmistakeable pain.

Qrow blinked, letting his mouth open a little. On the other hand, the mace wielding teen sent him a weighted stare. "Teach me."

"Ooh... kay..." Qrow gawked as a fresh stream of bolts slammed into the Goliath, ending the fearsome Grimm in a single volley. "I'm... about seventy percent sure that wasn't me this time."

Salem paused, her expression shattered as she jerked her head to the slain Grimm. Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ruby all halted as well, their eyes drawn skyward when a fresh explosion claimed a screeching Nevermore. The Marines of SG-3 all ceased firing at the sight of multiple streams of projectiles reaping a toll upon the nightmarish creatures. Eliane finished off a beast, glancing upwards in puzzlement.

At the fallen airship Cinder braced herself from a close explosion, hearing debris patter around them. Ignoring her allies' cursing, she looked up to the overcast sky in astonishment.

Something was slaying the flying Grimm; the monsters flapped and cried out at their unseen killers, but whatever it was only increased their work. Several glowing lights blew up a number of Nevermore at once, while a Gryphon was intercepted by a missile streaking from the clouds. Even the White Fang took a hit, when a racing missile zoomed from out of sight to blow a Bullhead out of the sky.

"What.. is this?" Cinder almost whispered, only just now noticing a peculiar roaring sound coming closer. Before her stunned eyes a black shape burst from the clouds to scream overhead, moving faster than anything she had ever seen before. She caught only a glimpse of swept forward wings before it veered away, a pair of exploding Grimm in its wake.

Grimm, faunus, huntsman, and soldier alike all stopped for many long seconds, each one hearing a bizarre drumming noise coming from the sky. A few continued fighting, but the vast majority were peering upwards, the air itself shuddering in anticipation.

The clouds deformed, streaming away as something massive dove through the barrier. As the grey mist streamed away, black armor came into relief, outlining into a prow shaped front. Behind the nose of the vessel came a set of bulged compartments, topped by a commanding tower. At the rear of the never before seen ship was a glowing engine, humming with teeth chattering power. In the ship's wake came rays of powerful sunlight, blinding those closest to the arrival.

Four more fighter craft streaked behind the ship, flanking the vessel as they zoomed towards the shocked Grimm. Railguns and missiles left the unique aircraft, impacting the monsters in a fresh wave of blooming fire. Their four comrades left the safety of the obscuring clouds to engage in earnest, the craft known as F302s proceeding to reap a terrible toll upon the creatures of darkness.

Every radio, every scroll, every device capable of receiving radio signals came to life, repeating the same words across all frequencies.

" _ **This is the**_ **USAF** **Prometheus** _ **to all Beacon and Atlas forces, reinforcements have arrived. All batteries, open fire.**_ "

Just as twenty four railguns opened fire upon their targets, a powerful white light deposited an unusual construct right behind the failing Atlas defense lines. It was a statue, almost seven meters tall and coated in strange markings, shaped as a large ring. A moment after being relocated, Remnant's Stargate activated from the far side, a searing bloom lashing out before retracting in on itself.

Salvation had come.

00000

 **A/N: I say this knowing none of you are going to believe me, but this here? I've been planning this since Not What You Expected began. Everything I've written has been leading up to this moment, this one glorious battle.**

 **While there are many songs that are acceptable to listen to when reading this, there is only one writer approved song. Its a a little tune by Sabaton, which I admit I didn't know of when I came up with this. Wish I did though. Ahem, if you'll indulge me...**

 _ **A cry for help, in times of need**_

 _ **Await relief from Holy League**_

 _ **Sixty days of siege, outnumbered and weak**_

 _ **Sent a message to the sky, wounded soldiers left to die**_

 _ **Will they hold the wall, or will the city fall?**_

 _ **Dedication, dedication**_

 _ **They're outnumbered fifteen to one...**_

 _ **And the battles begun!**_

 _ **Then the Winged Hussars arrived!**_


	33. The Second Battle of Beacon pt2

**A/N: Sorry for the wait guys, my life just went haywire for a couple weeks on end. This means the chapter on tap isn't quite up to my usual standard, but while I was writing this everything seemed to go wrong.**

 _ **B/N: Insert Captain America's Patience Joke (For everyone). This is a little overviewy, not as fun to read. Just saying.**_

00000

"This is the _USAF Prometheus_ to all Beacon and Atlas forces, reinforcements have arrived. All batteries, open fire."

Colonel Pendergast flicked his armrest radio off to grimace, staring ahead out the bridge windows. All around him was organized chaos of frantic chatter and flashing terminals, the uniquely trained Airmen managing an event he believed none of them were truly ready for. Despite the lack of experience, he had few complaints for their performance thus far, and they seemed to be handling a combat situation well enough. Leaning forward in his chair, he cleared his mind of distractions to focus on the crisis in front of him.

"All three'oh'twos engaged, guns are hot. No problems at this time sir." an Airman reported from his left.

"Stargate transportation successful, but hostile forces are still advancing sir." another told him from his right, sounding nervous.

Pendergast responded succinctly. "Weapons free."

Projectiles launched from all twenty four railgun batteries, the ferro-tungsten slugs leaving an afterimage of beautiful lights when they hit open air. The results of their impacts however were a stark contrast; every time a light connected onto a creature in the air or on the ground, powerful explosions rippled out that slew anything it touched. Neither flesh nor metal could withstand the withering fire. Flying ones (Nevermore, he mentally corrected) were shredded mid flight, dying without so much as a screech. The handful of larger monsters on the ground that the vessel targeted met similar fates, such as a colossal elephantine creature struck down in the middle of a charge.

"Sir, air units closing in!" the helmsman urgently reported.

Just outside a monster out of a nightmare swooped into view, weaving around its dying brethren. It looked so much like an eagle, but it was midnight black, with a bone white bird skull over its head. Just by looking at the creature the Colonel sensed its malicious intent, the radiant desire to kill them all. Closer and closer the monster flew, unmistakably coming right towards them; as if to announce itself, the thing let out an earsplitting screech that rattled even the bridge. Though flashes of bright yellow lights streamed across the sky, it was clearly undaunted on its attack run.

Just as the thirty meter Nevermore flared its wings to reveal wicked claws for feet, a series of fresh railgun munitions slammed into the creature, shredding it utterly. The creature screeched in pain one last time, falling into ash even as it tumbled from the air. Its slayer zoomed past almost too quickly to see, banking away from a set of claws belonging to a roaring Gryphon. The Grimm were numerous beyond expectations, but the F302s could escape their reach with impunity.

In the cockpit, the pilot relaxed his grip on the controls to flick his radio to the entire squadron.

"This is Blue One to all fighters, these things go down easy, but missiles won't lock. Watch your gun feed, we have to make every shot count." Colonel Cameron Mitchell heard a short chorus of " _Rodger_." from the squadron, then flicked to his copilot. "Hell of a milk run Banks."

"The vacation was nice while it lasted." the lieutenant responded wryly, switching to his display. "Bandit, ten o'clock. Locking on."

"Copy." Mitchell replied, steering the fighter towards a target of opportunity.

His display placed a diamond shaped icon over a White Fang Bullhead, which was trying to race after another F302. He was willing to admit those craft were remarkably nimble, but they didn't have a prayer of keeping up with the supersonic fighters, as the enemy pilot was discovering first hand. The guidance systems onboard his F302 had problems locking on to the Grimm creatures, but these VTOLs had no such protection.

Once his display reticle turned green, Mitchell spoke once. "Fox Three."

With the command given, he deployed a pair of AIM-120Ns from below the F302's wings. The twin missiles carrying Naquadah payloads raced away towards the hapless airship, but an unlucky Nevermore took one by accident along the way, erupting into billowing flame. It was a stroke of luck that wasn't repeated; the second missile hit the tail of the Bullhead to explode, destroying the craft in one fell swoop.

"One down, six and a half million to go." Mitchell commented, hearing a snort while the F302 broke off at mach two. For a moment he left the battle far behind, but once they were far enough out the nose swung back, banking sharply to return to the fray.

It was an event repeated all over the plain. The eight F302s of Blue Squadron continued to slash and cut at the swarm of mixed enemies, each craft reaping a host of casualties in every pass before evading return fire, leaving their far slower opponents to flounder. Monsters and hostile aircraft alike scrambled to react to this new foe, but none were ready by the time the next flight tore into them. Pendergast didn't need to tell the pilots to time their runs sequentially, ensuring there was always at least one fighter over the battlefield all the time. Their attacks, combined with the _Prometheus_ shredding every hostile the guns could target, were already causing a noticeable drop in the black swarm down below.

"Sir, wormhole is established. We have confirmed signal from Earth." an Airman told him over the babbling voices.

"About time." Pendergast gripped his seat in anticipation, even though he was still internally cursing the subspace delivered orders he received. "Drop a volley in front of that defense line, give them a little breathing room."

00000

Bombs rained, men and women screamed, gunfire boomed, and Grimm snarled in every direction. But the rippling surface of the Stargate's event horizon was unbothered by the battle raging around it's ancient form, serenely held in place as it had for so many times over countless centuries.

In spite of the encroaching chaos bearing down on them, the squads closest to the ring weren't blind to its arrival. Two full platoons of battered troopers switched their firing positions around, training their quivering weapons upon the glowing circle in their midst. Although they reacted with gusto, the expressions of the troops were just above grimaces; for all they knew, this was a new weapon of an enemy adept at pulling surprises. Things only grew worse for them when two humans left the glowing puddle, seeming to appear from the ether.

The two men were almost shredded by the Atlas troops when they came into existence, both green clad soldiers hesitating for a moment in the face of danger. But rather than attack, they both shouted over the din as loud as possible.

"Hold your fire! Reinforcements are on the way!"

As they frantically waved for the troops to move, the closest officer found a number of warily confused glances being shot his way. After everything that had happened today, from a set piece battle unlike anything in his generation, to a ship that could only be described as alien simply appearing the sky, he found himself at a crossroads. He didn't know whether to order the men to cut the strangers down, or to heed their claims. With the command ship sent crashing to the ground, he didn't have the luxury of passing it up the chain. The choice rested on his shoulders, and his alone. The officer clenched a fist.

Though bullets whooshed overhead perilously close, he stood up to wave his arms at his men. "Clear a path!"

Both arrivals quietly cheered, one speaking quickly into a radio as both men raised their black weapons, taking up flanking positions well away from the glowing puddle. Above them a Nevermore swooped in with an ear splitting screech, wings flared and claws outstretched. Before the humans could be mauled, a beam of light skewered the monster mid strike, sending it careening into the ground. The laser battery responsible then swiveled to the next incoming foe, the walker android completing the task its operator hastily added to its system.

Three seconds ticked by, each heart pounding moment filled with the sounds of war. At the count of four, something happened that few could anticipate.

From the glowing surface came a massive object, the engine roaring like an enraged beast finally set free. It was an unsettling sight to the Remnant natives who witnessed its coming; grinding treads flung dirt into the air while the object ground forward, propelling a garish brick of dark green metal out of the shimmering puddle. Parts of it were smooth, but others were covered by strange bricks of unknown purpose, seeming to form a protective shell over the grinding treads. Topped by a long barreled cannon, the turret of the bizarre construct held a pair of red searchlights flanking the gun, looking eerily like glowing eyes.

No one knew what this vehicle was, but seconds after it came through another followed, then another, and so on until the entire rearguard of the defense was joined by ten of these strange moving bricks. Mid transit the turrets swiveled, each one controlled by smooth motors to arch over the weary Atlesian lines. The ten vehicles prowled in eerie unison, all of them aiming downrange towards the enemy closing in on their position.

The White Fang picked up on the unknown vehicles' arrival as well, and though the faunus were just as clueless to their identities as their foes, they decided to lump the newcomers together. Gunfire began to move away from suppressing the trenches, coordinated on the first treaded brick. Heavy weapons shifted away, with high powered rifles being the first to reach out. Soon larger weapons would be brought upon the objects, as soon as their operators could heft them into place.

The targeted hulk rang with clashing metal every time a bullet struck, but the bizarre vehicle wasn't slowed in any way. Even as it attracted more pattering fire, a single Paladin ceased shooting at the Atlesians to charge forward in a stomping gait, the operator intending to deal with the problem himself. At the stomping robot's flanks a wave of fighters ran ahead, sloppily firing but numerous all the same. At an unknown cue the bricks halted in an evenly spaced line, making themselves seemingly easy targets for the approaching foe.

Just as the mech raised its cannons, the arrivals fired.

The air itself seemed to convulse in shock. Shockwaves washed over the soldiers' heads, deafeningly loud with as close as they were. Those unfortunate enough to be right beside the machines were almost swatted aside by the back blast, few even noticing gouts of superheated flame briefly escaping the recoiling barrels. But what they suffered paled in comparison to the enemy.

Bright explosions rippled over the entire front of the charge, shattering the unlucky attackers instantly. Fire swirled around the jerking Paladin, servos whining to compensate for the powerful blow slamming into its hull. For a moment the machine flailed its wrecked arms, as if it were staggering for balance. While most of the hull was scorched and dented, one arm was turned to scrap, having taken the full brunt of the shell in place of the torso. Even for a blunt instrument it was now useless. Of its flanking allies, nothing remained but raining debris. Mere seconds after the first volley crippled the attempted push, the machines fired again.

While the White Fang advance stalled, the Stargate wasn't finished. A stream of humans left the surface to barrel towards the defenders, running the second they were through. Similar to the first pair, these men wore splotched green camouflage and toted a vast amount of black weapons, unlike anything the beleaguered Atlesians had ever seen before. A couple seconds of observation revealed they were soldiers themselves, the men racing ahead with unmatched discipline to bolster the surprised defenders.

Coordinated fire joined the Atlas troops, the reports of their weapons distinctly unlike the white armored soldiers. Faunus began to fall one after another with cries of pain, jerking around from the impacts which hit with unnerving accuracy. White Fang leaders shouted orders to rally their dumbstruck forces, succeeding in attracting fire from these new arrivals at a lethal rate.

Return fire caused several of the green soldiers to go for cover, but it failed to stop the unknown troops from landing precise shots upon the offenders. A missile was fired from one desperate fighter, which arched over the defenders in a clear miss; in return one of the new soldiers fired a launcher of their own, which found its mark in a searing blast of deafening force.

Between the pinpoint shots, the intermittent Atlas fire, and the explosions booming from the bricks, the White Fang's headlong assault ceased. Instead the troops were left to frantically search for any cover from the withering fire, many unable to make it that far before sharp cracks dropped them where they stood.

Near the front of the trenches, Major Anton Rouge lowered his rifle to gawk, watching the green clad soldiers quickly join his injured men in the trenches, taking up firing positions alongside his wary troops. All save for a lone man, who vaulted over the top while gunfire peppered the air above him, landing right beside the officer. The few soldiers beside him started to jerk towards this arrival, but a quick wave stopped them.

"Who the hell are you?!" Rouge shouted over the gunfire.

"Lieutenant Steve Cole, Seventy Fifty Ranger Regiment! Captain Sobieski sends his commendation for holding the line!" the soldier yelled back.

Rouge had no idea what the man was talking about, but a stray bullet that ricocheted off his helmet made him curse, internally coming to a decision. There were far reaching consequences to his choice, but in the heat of the moment he didn't have the will to care.

"Tell Sobieski thanks and start shooting!" Rouge bellowed, activating the comms to relay the orders. The soldier, a Ranger, did the same with a small old fashioned radio, receiving a response none of the Atlesians understood.

One group of White Fang troopers nearby the lines, hunched behind rocks, scrap metal, and anything else capable of offering cover, picked up at a squad leader shouting, "On me!"

He was a nobody before this day, an ambitious underling waiting for a chance to prove himself. Now the opportunity was before him, and he was determined to make the most of it. Though gunfire and explosions tore through the air around him, he waved and shouted at the confused faunus in his midst. Some he bellowed to spray fire at the bolstered defenders, others he directed to dart to his location, swiftly amassing a score of huddled fighters on his position. The closest he came to wavering was when a screaming flyer blasted overhead, leaving a sonic boom and an exploding Bullhead in its wake.

Grinning beneath his mask, he shouted to his new followers. "Close combat, hack them down! Leave no one-"

His sentence ended with his life, a bullet entering one side of his neck and exiting the other. He fell limply in front of his stunned group, his death keeping the fighters still long enough for one of the ugly bricks to swivel its turret into place. Another shell left the cannon to impact right in front of the faunus, seemingly unmaking the troopers from existence in a shower of raining dirt and encompassing flame. The gunner nestled inside the armored cocoon nodded once, and moved the 125mm gun to another target, destroying them as well with mechanical efficiency.

Not far from the reinforced lines, Reynolds looked from his red hot M60, along with all his men. The M2 was temporarily silenced for want of a fresh barrel, but even if the tripod mounted gun was firing, its roar was now drowned out by the booms of the enormous tank cannons.

"Well I'll be damned. They brought an army." he muttered, staring in awe even when a Marine launched an AT-4 at the Grimm, succeeding in killing a dozen with one shot. The beasts that were heading to the surrounded huntsmen now barreled headfirst towards the new arrivals, leaving their brethren alone against the students blades.

And so, three hundred and fifty Atlas soldiers of the 33rd Patrol Battalion, ten T90s of the Russian Federation's 5th Guards Tank Division, and one hundred and ten men from the United States Army 75th Ranger regiment came together in the maelstrom of battle. Together, the men and women unleashed their full wrath upon the White Fang facing them.

00000

"What... what is this?" Salem was a hairsbreadth from snarling, her features twitching at the otherworldly sight. She had dropped her victim to face the ship, her expression twisted into a snarling glare. The woman glowered at the vessel contemptuously swatting the Nevermore aside, appearing as if she wanted to claw at the ugly construct slaughtering her horde. Or run from it's inevitable wrath.

At the sound of a pained chuckle, she jerked her head towards Ozpin. Though he was sprawled on the cobblestone clutching his leg, the wizened headmaster was grinning broadly at her confused rage. Even a screaming craft dashing overhead did not weaken his newfound triumph, or the concussive booms of two Gryphons meeting a fiery end. He continued to smile even as she scowled, raw hate flashing over her expression.

"You were wrong my dear." he told her, mockingly smirking through his considerable pain.

The inhuman woman bared her teeth, dark power flowing into her palms at the sight of his taunting grin. "About what?"

"I still have allies, and they are more powerful than all of us combined." hissing in a breath when his leg twitched, Ozpin still mustered a cocky smile. "You lost this fight the moment they found me."

Salem had no words left; snarling in rage, the inhuman being raised a hand clutched with unholy power, the wispy energy a second away from obliterating her most hated foe. But just as she began to lash out, she detected something from the corner of her vision. Twisting her head a few degrees, she blinked at the sight of a fast moving object, right when it hit her on the temple.

Unfamiliar pain exploded from her head, the power behind the attack enough to stagger her. She barely stopped herself from falling over, tripping over herself without her typical unsettling grace. Clutching the indented flesh with a snarl, Salem jerked towards the cause of her fresh injury, baring her teeth at the orange haired girl recovering her stance.

Nora grinned at the old schemer, resting the hammer's shaft on her shoulder. "I fixed your stupid hair."

The inhuman woman felt her eye twitching, which only grew worse upon realizing the others had her surrounded. Weiss and Blake were circling her on their way to Ozpin, while Yang stood with Ren a body's length from the ginger. Each one had weapons raised and attentions firmly locked upon their enemy. She briefly wondered how they escaped her minion's claws, but then she discovered their absence; Salem was so preoccupied by the alien vessel raining fire down upon her precious horde, she failed to notice these mere children had already slain them.

When she realized she was completely alone, Salem's throat clenched in a very human fashion.

"So, last one standing buys dinner for everybody." Nora proposed, spinning her hammer overhead before gripping it tightly. She rolled her shoulders, idly letting her jacket hang open.

"Deal. We can still help each other until then." Yang added, sparing a hopeful peek towards the young man beside her. Ren took one look at her and rolled his eyes.

Salem launched a bolt of black energy towards the two, who both dived out of the way. The blast hit only concrete, blasting the walkway with enough power to send gravel pattering off them. Growling at the miss, she spied the young man tossing a black object into the air at the blonde's direction. She was about to destroy it, but fresh gunfire tore into her exposed back, the unexpected burst causing her to stumble.

Whipping around, Salem's dangerous glare was leveled upon Weiss. The white toned girl suppressed a gulp, though she kept the square gun trained upon the robed woman.

"Well, that did something at least." she muttered, wincing as she fired the P90 once again.

Salem jerked her arms up when more fire poured into her, the different types of bullets digging into her flesh. Blake and Ren both took off in a circular sprint, laying on their triggers the entire time. Weiss kept up with them thanks to Nora's P90, grimacing as she fired in short bursts; she disliked using guns on principle, but she wasn't about to say no to any sort of help, especially when she found herself alone in going for Ozpin.

Grabbing him by the arm, she quickly got out a "Sorry." to the headmaster as she dragged him away, hearing another P90 join in on the chatter. She continually flicked her eyes to the transparent magazine on the top, grimacing at the tiny bullets steadily vanishing.

Chuckling to herself at the thought of her father's reaction, Yang fired the square gun one handed while she ran, whooping in victory when she evaded another blast of dark energy. Keeping the little gun steady wasn't that hard, though Ren grunting at a burst ricocheting off his Aura forced her to be a little more careful. Sooner than she liked, the P90 clicked empty, but she was satisfied with its performance. She felt a little bit of regret at tossing the gun away, leaving her hands free to barrel headfirst towards the Grimm woman. As if reading her thoughts, both sets of pistols ceased their chattering.

Salem brought her arms around to skewer her, but Yang made a mistake in assuming the distraction would work; this time the woman braced for the blow heading for her leg, the limb only buckling a little from the hammer's swing. A quick whip of her hand made a lash of shadowy power race out, landing directly onto the ginger's chest. With a muffled grunt Nora was blasted away, skidding off the cobblestone as Magnhild fell from her grip.

"Nora!" Ren shouted, snapping away from his comrade.

Yang's wound up punch was supposed to happen when the Grimm woman was caught off guard, her catching the blow in one searingly hot grip wasn't what she planned. Grunting from her abrupt jerk, the blonde was about to blast herself free, but she paused when Salem swiveled her head towards her. The inhuman being wore an expression of cold rage, causing an unfamiliar shiver to crawl down her spine.

"You need to try harder than that." she told her, launching her other fist directly into the blonde's midsection.

All the air in Yang's lungs was violently forced out, the blow powerful enough to crumple her Aura. She barely noticed flying through the air until she landed, bouncing once before rolling to a stop easily fifteen meters away. Wincing, the blonde gingerly felt along her stomach, hissing in a breath when a tap yielded a lot more pain than she thought possible; based on the way her entire torso screamed in agony, she guessed several of her ribs were broken. Her Aura was recovering fast, but the blow overpowered her semblance way too fast for her liking.

Gritting her teeth, Yang flopped around to push herself off the cobblestone. Now was no time to lay around, not when a never before seen type of Grimm was so close. Feeling a gust of heated air, she craned her neck back to the fight, seeing Weiss finish a blast of fire dust. A mere heartbeat after the flames vanished, the white haired girl yelped as she narrowly jerked away from a bolt of dark energy. The attack managing to spear the front half of the loaned P90, shattering the black weapon instantly.

Grumbling under her breath, the blonde just returned to her feet when another blow sent Nora sprawling an arms length away from Yang, the orange haired girl skidding on her hands and knees alongside her treasured hammer. Just as she came to a stop Nora snatched her weapon mid slide, meandering back up to sullenly glare at Salem.

"That's it, party time." Nora muttered. Yang was about to ask her what she meant when she reached inside her jacket, then her lilac eyes widened at the pistol sized weapon Nora withdrew.

The last thing Yang expected was for Nora to point the Zat at herself, firing off an electric crackle which swam all over her body. For a second the orange haired girl staggered, nearly falling over on woozy feet. Just as Yang began to approach her however, Nora snapped her head up, standing tall as she clutched Magnhild close, grinning wildly as she tossed the alien weapon aside without a backwards glance. It was if she was strengthened-

"Ah, right. Semblance." the blonde mumbled, tapping her forehead in self reproach.

"Oh yeah." Nora agreed simply, still grinning when she took off in a blur.

Yang glanced to the discarded Zat, but after a second of thought she dismissed the weapon; she wanted to use one, but she couldn't let Nora take all the credit. Dashing forward to Blake, she exchanged a look when she stopped for breath, mustering a cocky smirk to the swordswoman. After a second, the faunus returned it.

"Whip lash?" Blake checked.

"Ground pound." Yang corrected, making the girl roll her eyes.

"Show off." she muttered, the two bolting right towards Salem.

00000

A short distance away from the mounting death toll, a side bay of the fallen warship blasted open from emergency charges, the large hunk of metal falling with a tremendous crash onto the dirt. The noise was quite audible over the battle, catching the attention of nearby hostiles. The closest of the hastily regrouping White Fang, joined by a host of snarling Grimm, paused to glance at the open entrance; those aware enough to question the event wondered what just caused this to happen.

Fresh gunfire shredded those nearest, combined with a chant like metallic stomping; from this and many new entrances marched Knight-130U androids, hundreds of shooting robots moving in unnatural precision to attack any foe their reprogrammed systems detected. Panicked return fire did not distract the machines from their task, neither did many Grimm running up to slash the robots apart with sharp claws. Their comrades eliminated the creatures and kept marching.

Out of one entrance, two sets of much larger stomps broke down a malfunctioning door, announcing the entry of four unusual contenders to the fray: into the light came a massive robot, nearly five meters tall and gleaming in the light. Blue lights shown from humming conduits and sensors, the enormous weapon clad arms swinging with its movements. Though it appeared hunched over by design, the mech strode forward with unchallenged confidence. The machine's very presence was daunting, especially when a second stomped out after it in a hurried gait. In comparison, two humans rushing out in close proximity to the servo grinding legs seemed utterly insignificant.

All four entities paused to gawk at the sky, the Paladins opening their hatches to let their pilots see the awe inspiring event. The _Prometheus_ hung in the sky, defiantly raining fire upon the battlefield below them; as they watched, a White Fang Bullhead tried to zoom towards the intruder, but a rattling scream of supersonic engines proceeded the craft igniting into a flaming wreck. As it helplessly careened to the ground, an F302 blew past at incredible speed to the clouds.

"By the gods." Ironwood whispered, gawking with undisguised awe.

"Well, don't see that every day." O'Neill mumbled, resting the M249 on his shoulder.

Both men flinched when one Paladin fired a laser cannon from its arm mount, destroying a roaring Berigel where it stood. In the cockpit, one the two pilots nodded solemnly.

"There are enemies all around us." Teal'c said flatly, keeping a steady grip on the controls. Without another word he closed the hatch over him and an unhappy Daniel, sealing the mech shut.

The servos on the Paladin's twin groaned to swing the machine around, letting the two pilots within to face pair who jerked towards them.

"Sir! I think Hammond pulled a miracle!" Carter yelled, causing the injured Atlesian above her to wince.

"Seems that way!" O'Neill yelled back, his words almost drowned out by an F302 roaring overhead.

Ironwood turned to the trenches, almost letting his jaw drop. "Looks like he did more than that, look!"

A pointed finger drew their attentions towards the lines, especially onto the thundering vehicles blasting the attackers. As the White Fang began to falter from the new flashes of gunfire, Grimm were changing course from the still fighting Huntsmen, heading right at the new arrivals. A single enormous King Tajitu rose from the shifting tide to let out a twisted snarl of a roar, only to have its head go up in a concussive fireball. It fell back into a limp pile, turning to ash long before its bulk could hit the dirt.

A loudspeaker came to life on the closed Paladin. " _Are those tanks? Well, that's a first._ "

"Yeah, Hammond must've really- _wait_." O'Neill went silent, squinting at the line. Blinking in astonishment, he unexpectedly recoiled to whip around, stomping onto the metal hull with a snarl on his lips.

"Colonel?!" Ironwood questioned in confusion.

Jerking towards the robot, O'Neill ripped his hat off to throw onto the ground, violent enough to make Carter lean the Paladin back. He finished with a jabbed hand at the defenders, almost letting go of the machine gun in his anger.

"Sir?!" Carter yelled worriedly.

"Those are T90s Carter! _Russians_!" O'Neill snarled indignantly. "What in the hell are Russians doing here!?"

" _They are allies._ " Teal'c rumbled from the loudspeaker. As if to punctuate his sentence, another F302 swooped in on a long run over the field, letting loose a stream of railgun fire; though the attack lasted seconds at most (and did little to reduce the Grimm's numbers), the White Fang's assault faltered even more, many of the troops spraying gunfire skyward in a vain attempt to bring the fighter down.

"But they're Russians!" he protested.

The hull around the exposed pair sparked, O'Neill and Ironwood immediately ducking with weapons in hand. Just as the air began to whistle with deadly promise, both men dove towards the narrow safety of Carter's Paladin, while the woman closed the hatch to swivel towards the attackers.

Teal'c and Daniel's Paladin were on it already however; the operator raising the clawed hands to aim to the interlopers, making the center of the limbs glow with evil promise. A squad's worth of White Fang, a moment ago about to charge up the fallen airstrip's hull, saw the machine and immediately fell back in a panic. They fled a few meters in the time it took for the Jaffa to lock on.

Ironwood knew to throw an arm over his eyes. O'Neill was a quick learner however, and aped his move a mere second before a volley of red light flashed in front of him. Blinking past the spots in his vision, the Earthborn Colonel thought he smelled ozone when he lowered his arm, and saw what became of the attacking faunus. The carbon stains of the faunus rather. The Paladin responsible clamped armor back over the claws, the arms rolling upwards in a close approximation of a shrug.

" _This machine is quite effective._ "

" _Um, yeah, that's not how I'd put it. That was a little uncalled for honestly._ "

Twisting around, the central sensor node of the mech focused on O'Neill walking back into sight. " _We should rejoin the battle immediately. With these, we may yet seize victory._ "

"Great idea guys!" he flopped an arm resignedly.

" _I'd love to join you, but I should stay nearby to keep the androids on track._ " Carter's mech told them.

"Alright then! Let's do-" O'Neill barely finished speaking when both Paladins turned away. Carter's stomped farther up the hull to get a clear view, directing the expanding bubble of firepower she unleashed. Teal'c and Daniel's however took off in a sprint, shaking the ground with every footfall. Neither so much as spoke when they left the two men alone.

The Colonel flopped his arms, the M249's barrel nearly scrapping the hull. "Okay then, do your own thing."

"Do you ever stop talking?" Ironwood questioned dryly, popping the wheel out of his revolver to inspect his ammo.

"When I'm eating, sleeping, and- get down!" O'Neill jerked his machine gun around, laying on the trigger milliseconds after the General dropped.

The sword wielding White Fang operative jerked back with a grunt, his rapid dash towards Ironwood interrupted at the last second. He cried out in pain at the 5.56 rounds bouncing off his Aura at first, until they suddenly weren't. O'Neill's last burst tore a ragged stitch of red across his chest, which sent the man limply tumbling back. He fell quickly, the elegantly crafted blade clattering off the hull when it slipped from his fingers.

Ironwood stood back up, for a moment training his sidearm onto the fallen man. "Well, suppose I should thank you for that."

"I'll accept your gratitude in a beer crate." he replied, hefting the M249 to aim at another group approaching them. With a roll of his eyes Ironwood switched his weapon to the same target, feeling the revolver kick when he fired.

Until a flash of light crossed the sky, the same thing that destroyed the airship beneath their feet.

00000

Cinder could scarcely believe her eyes. Her darkest musings were coming to life as she watched; the ram like ship had appeared from the clouds like the fist of an angry god, and with it, an army had followed. She didn't need the binoculars to know the ringed statue was the source of these new fighters, reinforcing the Atlesian lines just as the screaming craft tore through the air. How they transported it there (even who _they_ were), was a question she no longer had the luxury of asking.

Shoving aside the numbly staring Emerald and Mercury, the woman stomped over to the feverishly mumbling Hale to grab his jacket. The sudden grip finally tore his eyes off the object that was destroying his army, and onto the human's tight expression.

"You..." for a moment his face darkened, eyes filling with rage.

Cinder roughly shook him. "Listen to me. Get your laser to target the ship, its our best chance to turn this around."

"You knew this would happen." Hale accused, roughly gripping her arm. Her tightening hold lifted him off the ground for a second, momentarily replacing his anger with terror. But Cinder was beyond caring at this point.

"Save it for later, or else none of us are getting out of this alive." she growled the half-truth, dropping the arrogant leader.

He stumbled for a second to regain his balance, once he finished he discovered her look hadn't changed. Though Hale sported a sour glare aimed directly at her, he signaled the crew operating the cannon, receiving what she hoped was an affirmative. Ignoring Mercury's cursing or Emerald's babbling spiel at the impossible sight, Cinder grinned at the laser cannon inclining back once more, the groaning hydraulics competing with the building whine of the capacitors.

In a crisp snap the cannon fired a beam of powerful crimson light, which minutes ago brought down an Atlas warship. In a welcome coincidence, one of the alien flyers just happened to be in the beam's way, a stroke of luck that killed one of the seemingly untouchable machines.

One of the craft's wings evaporated in the intense heat, igniting the hull into a ball of rippling flame that devoured its pilots long before they could escape. The now powerless flyer dropped like a stone, spinning uncontrollably until it crashed with a sobering boom. Its momentum kept it going long enough to dig a fresh scar into the field as it flung itself apart, debris flying everywhere. Its destruction was supposed to be emboldening, since it proved the craft weren't invincible. But Cinder didn't get to enjoy the bonus casualty.

Fifteen meters from the prow like hull, whitish blue light intercepted the red beam, for a second revealing a faint outline of a bubble reaching around the vessel. The ship killing beam flickered off the barrier until the weapon ceased firing, and the light incongruously vanished with it.

The woman blinked once, grabbing her jaw to force it closed. Yet her mouth hung open again the second she let go.

"Okay, what?!" Emerald all but screamed in her place.

00000

Pendergast felt the tremor rumble in his seat, for a second bringing a pause to the frantic chatter. "What was that?"

"Sir, sensors ID'd it as a high intensity laser weapon. Must be the same thing that brought down Red One." the helmsman replied, restarting the heated orders and reports.

"Shields?" he questioned immediately, grimacing in unhappy anticipation.

"Factoring in atmospheric degradation, we're down two percent."

For a moment palpable relief spread over the bridge, many crewman smiling or even chuckling at the news. The euphoria died when an Airman cursed under her breath. "Sir, that attack caught Blue Three in the crossfire. Perez and Erics are flatlined."

Another lance struck the shields, again creating a shiver like rumble underneath his feet. The greying Colonel gripped his armrests, though his expression was devoid of fear.

"Get a targeting solution on that weapon, and put a missile barrage on that location stat." he commanded, leaning back in his chair. Pendergast told himself he was making a path for friendlies, but he knew better.

00000

"Does, does that thing have an Aura?" Hale muttered numbly, slack jawed.

Cinder gritted her teeth, stomping forward to overlook the battle. The outcome was clear to her now; even if they managed to somehow wipe out the Beacon forces, they couldn't defeat the warship. There was only one viable course of action, despite how much bile she tasted at the mere thought of the idea.

"Hale, call for a retreat. We can't win this." she announced through a wince.

The woman didn't need to look to know her companions were staring at her in shock. Hale sputtered, caught off guard at her tone. "Wha? Why are you..."

"Right now we need to save what we can, wait for a better opportunity. Emerald, Mercury, find us an escape route, but not in the air. That belongs to them now." she crisply ordered, grimacing at the situation.

Salem would be furious, of that she had no doubt. But her master would understand her reasoning, and more importantly they would be alive to try again someday. She felt a small amount of consolation at knowing her cohorts couldn't lay the blame on her alone.

"Well?" she snapped, flopping her head around. And once again, she was silenced.

Hale, Emerald, and Mercury limply collapsed in unison, oozing blood from the daggers in their backs. For a second Cinder just breathed, numbly processing the sight of her most reliable companions, ones she fought, schemed, and traveled with together for many years now, dead without so much as a whimper. The closest she had to true friends, now as lifeless as their many victims. Detecting movement, her eyes creaked upwards several degrees.

Behind them stood Neopolitan, idly using a handkerchief to clean the blood off her hands. Dropping the cloth, she withdrew a card to flick across the small gulf between them, which Cinder caught easily.

'Surprise, I was a double agent the entire time.' was written in elegant print on one side, and a flick of her wrist showed the other to have, 'This is for leaving Roman to die.'

Cinder snapped up at a quiet whoosh, discovering a greasy black circle on the hull behind the two toned girl. She raised one hand to chest level, in order to daintily wave in farewell. The card burst into flame as she threw a fireball, snarling in barely contained rage at Neo falling back into the inky pool. She leapt over as fast as she could move, but the portal ( _what else could it be_ she thought, although it was unlike any portal she'd ever seen before) vanished just as she reached it. Clawing at the metal where the traitor's escape route disappeared, Cinder screamed as she punched a hole through the corroded hull.

Rising to her feet, Cinder couldn't stop her fists from shaking. She vowed to whatever god was listening that she would kill that traitor, making her pay for her crimes. But for as furious as she was, she clearly heard a fresh set of booms from her back. Twisting around, her rage was buried instantly.

Geysers of billowing smoke erupted from the top of the black warship, spawning a swarm of missiles which quickly veered away, all heading right for the offending attacker. Numbering twenty in all, the conventionally tipped bombs streamed towards the salvaged laser cannon at supersonic speeds.

Not all were able to reach their target however; two Nevermore intercepted three missiles between them, the concussive blasts from their screeching deaths knocking another four off course. Those spiraled away, with only one landing on a three armed Geist by chance alone. Halfway to the target a Gryphon flew in the way of another pair of missiles, repeating the process onto another three, all of which succeeded in incinerating some foliage.

In the corner of her mind Cinder was grateful for the beasts sacrifice, since they lessened the barrage enough for a chance. But aloud, she was taking in air as fast as humanly possible due to running for her life. On foot however, there was no way she could get far enough away.

The eight missiles reached their target and detonated; the sheer power of the explosives joined with the sensitive generators powering the cannon, boosting the shockwave considerably. Enough to pick Cinder up and throw her away like a rag doll. Midair the woman screamed at the forces tossing her about, but she only managed to empty her burning lungs. Superheated air licked over her body, while her senses were blotted out by the sheer noise.

When she finally hit the ground it came as a surprise, doubly so when it unexpectedly slipped away from her grip. The second time she didn't go flying again, skidding across the exposed dirt until she slammed into a warm mass. Grunting in pain, Cinder pushed herself off her stomach to pant, unmoving for several long seconds to recover. A part of her wondered what acted as her break, which required her to turn her head.

Surprisingly it was an Ursa, which glared at her with beady red eyes. But whatever intelligence behind the Grimm recognized the black mass on the human's arm, registering as a friendly to its animalistic mind. Still breathing heavily, Cinder was aware of snarling Grimm surrounding her in every direction, but none save for the Ursa seemed to pay her any mind. Shrugging off the matter, the woman shakily rose to her feet as the bear glowered at her. Knocking dirt off her dress, the woman grumbled insults while she planned her exit strategy, debating whether to link up with Salem first before they left this cursed academy far behind.

Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt when the Ursa snarled, then was abruptly cut off. She saw the beast in the corner of her vision, coldly observing a flash of reflective metal before it collapsed into ash.

All Cinder could do was let her arms fall. "This day just keeps getting better and better."

00000

At the base of the airship, a sloppily painted Paladin, smoother and thinner than the bulkier P-270, tore past a Grimm pack to meet the new fighter bearing down upon them. Pausing at the edge of the inclined metal, the enemy mech raised its own arm to fire off a laser, which left a thin trench in the hull that crossed their robot mid sprint. But these machines were built to take far more abuse than a mere light beam, and Teal'c was swiftly discovering just what his newest ride could do.

Roughly twenty meters away from the White Fang machine, the P-270 kicked its legs with as much power as the robot could muster, boldly launching the Paladin into the air. Grimm and faunus alike briefly halted in astonishment at the airborne mech, sailing through the air with reckless abandon. It was a simultaneously graceful yet ridiculous sight to the unwitting observers. Mid flight one of its arms drew back, launching forward just as they crashed into the enemy walker.

A tremendous crash boomed, the sheer energy behind the blow sending the faunus Paladin reeling back. However, the pilot was skilled enough to keep his machine balanced and upright, so while the Paladin stomped and flailed to steady itself, it didn't fall over. The borrowed Paladin was just as unstable thanks to the off kilter attack, which failed to end the men's foe. This meant both machines recovered at the same time, servos on the mechs whining as they faced each other.

"Um, Teal'c? We should go." Daniel suggested carefully, situated in the robot with no escape. The Jaffa didn't acknowledge him, discreetly tasking the helpful interface to prime weapons.

Shaking the ground with its footsteps, the Paladin barreled at the White Fang mech in a full run, the enemy firing off a missile volley at its foe. Teal'c felt the machine rumble ominously when the projectiles hit, his displays briefly filling with hazy static. That did nothing to stop his headlong charge.

"This hand of mine glows with awesome power." he whispered under his breath, surging the controls forward.

"Teal'c!" Daniel shouted this time, voice tinged by alarm.

Smoke briefly obscured the P-270, lasting but a second; had the White Fang operator been more thoroughly trained, he would have either continued firing or relocated to a better position, preferably both. Instead the pilot did neither, standing in place with weapons primed in anticipation. Until a mass of grinding metal leapt from the thick clouds, arms lunging right at the Paladin.

Several tons of fast moving metal contact a stationary target, impacting hard enough to completely bowl the P-290 model onto its back. The Paladin's flailing arms were unable to stop the older mech from snatching the sensor node in one claw to crush, and latched the other onto the torso with the laser already charged. Blasts of superheated shrapnel were flung out every time the weapon pulsed, firing again and again into the hull. No amount of jerking limbs could dislodge the struggling robot's grip, though a jerked leg came perilously close to throwing the Paladin off.

When the White Fang mech went limp at last, Teal'c ceased firing to relax the controls. As he let out a quiet breath, he heard Daniel clearing his throat insistently.

"What'd you say?" he questioned, testing his restraints when the Paladin maneuvered off its slain foe.

"I was recalling a rite of steadfastness." Teal'c answered, plodding the machine towards a group of fleeing infantry.

"Uh huh. Because I think you've seen a couple too many of those Japanese cartoons." he calmly rebutted.

Teal'c checked the ejection system, but to his displeasure the mechanism would remove both of them from the Paladin. "My viewing habits have no bearing on our current-"

A powerful explosion staggered the mech, hungry flames briefly enveloping the machine from its back to vanish as quickly as they arrived. But the Paladin was unable to ignore the unexpected blow, and with the servos whining it slumped to its knees.

"What struck us?" Teal'c demanded, moving the unresponsive controls to no avail. Cringing at his arm being seized, the archeologist checked his own display. What he saw made the human visibly deflate.

"Ah, crap, think the Russians mistook us for the enemy." Daniel said aloud, strain in his tone. The words were perhaps unnecessary, but saying something was preferable to stewing in the dim light.

Though knocked about by the sudden attack, Teal'c retained the sense to work his controls; he still had power, but there wasn't enough to get them moving, never mind weapons. Frowning in displeasure, he hit the emergency display to crack open the hatch. Smoke laced air crawled inside the cockpit, irritating his nostrils. Daniel's sudden coughing was cause to crane his head around as much as he was able, spying the doctor covering his mouth in a sleeve. Another cough and he tiredly waved off the silent offer, right before his eyes suddenly bulged.

Fortunately Teal'c was prepared for a situation akin to this, which translated to grabbing his newest weapon to point out the hatch. His timing was exquisite; the machete came down on the snarling Beowolf, ending its scrambled clawing when the blade sunk deep into its neck. The beast gurgled once, then dissolved to a short lived cloud of ash. A flick of his wrist transformed the weapon (which he had been mentally considering a name for, as per the tradition of this world) into a short barreled rifle, which he used to scan for additional Grimm.

"Ah... I think we're stuck. So much for the robot adventure." Daniel flopped back in apparent defeat.

The Jaffa deepened his frown. Long had he wished to drive a weapon of war such as this one, and finding his dreams crushed so quickly was something he refused to stand for. He reached for his radio to contact Carter, internally weighing the options of either repairing this machine or taking the blonde's. Fighting on foot was always a possibility of course, one he was reserving in case his brief mech pilot career was done for good.

Teal'c picked up when he heard something land on the Paladin's back, peering upwards with the rifle at the ready. There was a screech of protesting metal, then a spark of a live wire; he grimaced at whatever this unknown could be doing. Planting explosives, permanently sabotaging the mech, perhaps even clawing for purchase to get to them. In any case, he was ready to deal with them.

Without warning the displays lit up, power surging through the Paladin once more. Carefully testing the controls, Teal'c couldn't entirely help the tiny smirk when the servos lifted the mech upright again, ready to resume the battle. A head poking out from the top was nearly met by a bullet, the Jaffa recognizing the mop of blonde air just as she did the same.

"Teal'c of Chulak."

"Eliane Arc." Teal'c greeted, tipping his head forward in acknowledgement.

Though upside down with her hair dangling, Eliane returned the gesture before gazing to the passenger. "Doctor Jackson. You are well."

"Um..." Daniel considered his reply for several seconds, then settled for giving his face a slap. "Okay, thanks. I think. What'd you do?"

"I activated the power relays and rerouted the backups. The Atlas military are dishonorable toadies with ego complexes, but they aren't fools when it comes to designing their machines. Or they were, until their new digitization fad." Eliane explained crisply, grunting as she slipped over the top to land on the open hatch.

"You repaired the Paladin." Teal'c stated, raising a brow.

"Yes. Mechanical engineering and advanced robotics were my favorite hobbies when I was young. My mother always said I was better with machines than people, I never disputed that." she answered.

Daniel sighed. "I'm done questioning this place now. You can build advanced robots all day long, but cataloguing your own history is too much to ask for."

"From my point of view your world is the strange one." Eliane replied, switching back to Teal'c when he nodded.

"Eliane Arc, will you fight by our side?" he offered.

"By yours and Doctor Jackson's, certainly. I will be honored to join you." she closed her eyes to nod, and he answered in kind.

A bullet pinging of the hull was their cue, the blonde huntress leaping back onto the top as Teal'c sealed the hatch. Eliane found a helpful handhold to nestle into, drawing her bow to notch an arrow. As the machine swung around to the newest threat, accurate projectiles hit almost as frequently as the powerful lasers, even as the Paladin stomped back into the fray.

00000

Lights flickered, noises rang from unseen sources in every direction, and every so often the bulkheads would rumble ominously in uneasy promise. An hour ago the intercom announced the ship was heading into combat, but no amount of mental preparation could fully compensate for the crew's nervousness.

A pair of guards at the brig weren't exempt from the malaise, although they seemed to be composed at a glance. The two Airmen flanked the thick door with M4s held at chest level, expressions appearing blank in professional indifference. But a sheen of sweat on their brows gave away the men's thoughts, which periodic wipes of a free hand failed to solve. Until a most unexpected thing happened, which caused the pair to swivel towards the viewing window.

 _Tap tap tap_ , went the finger on the glass. When it ceased, a muffled voice inside picked up where it left off. " _Are we in battle?_ "

One man sighed, turning so he could peer inside. It took seconds for his eyes to widen, and he jerked to his radio.

"Code yellow, prisoner has escaped." he urgently reported, his companion snapping his head over in alarm.

"Wait, they said these guys can turn invis-" he grabbed the first man's arm, too slowly to stop him from unsealing the lock. As the door whooshed open, the alarmed man jerked away to raise his M4. "Close it you jackass!"

Raising his own M4, the guard's scrunched brow twisted his head to the side. He had just opened his mouth with a retort on his lips, plainly intending to demand answers. But he never got the chance to speak; with zero warning his lids dropped, and so did he.

As his comrade fell unconscious less than two meters away from him, the wary guard backed away rapidly, the barrel of his M4 twitching as he swept over the cramped hallway. He was almost hyperventilating, eyes wide in primal terror. Fortunately (in a manner of speaking), he didn't feel the hand grazing over his scalp, the neurons inside his skull lulled to sleep in a heartbeat. A pair of hands encircled the guard, one on his arm, the other at the back of his neck, both supporting his weight to set him down gently.

Laying the human on the floor, Faramir glanced up to sprint away. Light bent around his form, hiding his presence from the now alerted humans rushing towards the brig. He briefly hunched into an alcove to let a handful past him, then resumed his movements. Though he was unseen, he suppressed his smirk when he found his objective.

The thick door whooshed open, a flashing light on the ceiling blaring in warning. The Nox didn't care; he strode inside to close the door behind him, letting the processors hiss. After several nervous seconds, the outer airlock ground open. Fresh air swam inside the tiny space, and it took all of his willpower to stop from savoring the clear breeze. It was the first gulp of non recycled oxygen he tasted in so many years, and he wished to enjoy it for as long as he could. Alas, he couldn't.

Faramir stepped out of the airlock into open air, plummeting towards the surface. Long ago he once tried to save the people of this world from his benighted creations, but he failed. He was not going to do so again.

00000

A fresh impact drove the air from the girl, eliciting a pained gasp. The ragged gulp of air was forced out before she could fully process it, adding up to increase the burning of her chest. No sooner had she tried to breathe again did the small girl hit something else, the hard object letting the small girl crumple against its unyielding surface. She had no strength left to resist gravity yanking her to the ground.

For a moment she did nothing but heave, desperately taking in air to her needy lungs. Though crunchy grit entered her mouth with every pant, she continued to get her wind back, unmindful of the hellish noises in every direction. After a moment she flopped an arm, pawing at the dirt for several long seconds (so it seemed anyway) until her hand landed on her prize. Wrapping tired fingers over the shaft, she dragged the red painted weapon to her exhausted body. Near mindless gestures pawed over the rifle, idly discovering a fresh dent in the barrel. But a quick test made the curved blade pop out as it was supposed to.

Pushing herself onto her hands and knees felt like a herculean effort, though she knew she had to. There was still so much to do, and no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't give up now. Especially when she felt rather than saw something stop just a short distance away.

Creaking her eyes open, Ruby felt her fear return from when the unknown beast knocked her away from Jaune and Pyrrha. Her breath caught in her throat, and she instinctively clutched her weapon close, despite knowing how little protection it offered. For not four meters away was a monster, unlike anything she had ever encountered before.

A whip like tail curled around the exposed boulder it perched on, swaying back and forth like a pendulum. All the while, sharp claws on its feet and hands dug into the stone, lazily protected by a pair of leathery wings shrouding its form. From the toes to its unmistakably reptilian face were black scales, which seemed to drink in the light rather than reflect it back. The effect was like its form was drenched in pure darkness, giving it an air of quiet malice and serving to disguise its large bulk.

The only thing marring its body was a splatter of thick blood on a wing, though the way it was placed made her down it was accidental. She thought of the huntsmen team she blew past, and shuddered. The monster had singled her out for reasons she didn't understand, and when those four students tried to lend some help... it was hard to hear their screams over the battle, but heard them she did.

The creatures head, elongated and slender and exposing rows of gleaming teeth, was focused solely upon the red toned girl. Its maw opened, giving off a stench that turned Ruby's stomach even from her distance; she knew it reeked of rotting flesh, despite having never smelled it before.

This was no Grimm.

Gritting her teeth, Ruby pulled the trigger; a bullet that could end Beowolves under almost any condition reached out... and bounced off the creatures scaly hide. The monster didn't even flinch from the impact. Releasing a shaking breath, she fired again, and again, and again. Each time the rounds merely flecked harmlessly off the unnatural creature, accomplishing nothing but increasing its uncanny grin. Its scales didn't show so much as a scratch.

When her weapon clicked empty, the small girl's breath caught. The monster leaned in more, and she shrunk back until her back hit a hard surface. She was trapped.

A slender tongue licked over the monster's lips. " _ **My Alpha...**_ "

Ruby was so caught up in terror, she failed to notice something leaping right over the top nightmarish creature, sticking something on the back of its neck. It just noticed the distraction when she cleared its reach, the pleased (she had the feeling it was pleased anyway) expression it wore transformed into puzzled irritation. One wicked claw swept over the hand sized grey cylinder the girl left behind, just as it popped open.

Without warning the cylinder blossomed into a purple tinted sphere; staring wide eyed, Ruby watched the sickly ball consume the monster with nary a cry, feeling her eyes swim from just looking at it. Bile rose in the back of her throat, and her head felt dizzy all of a sudden. The ball just felt _wrong_ in ways she couldn't describe. For a second she thought she heard something else, something... was it screaming, or laughter?

When the sphere vanished, there was nothing left of the monster. Nothing but a bowl shaped indentation on the ground, and a girl stepping in front of her.

"Get up." went the soft yet full voice, barely audible over the din.

With a ragged sigh, Ruby held out a hand to grab, feeling a surprisingly powerful grip latch ahold to yank her upwards. She had trouble keeping Crescent Rose in her grip, for a moment anyway; strength seemed to flow back into her, her countless aches and bruises fading away. Whatever was revitalizing her didn't last long enough for her liking, coming to a close when the green haired girl in black had her upright once more.

"T-thanks." she said to the huntress, flinching at a bullet zipping past very close. Another followed it, pinging off something from behind her; she saw it was a hunk of black metal, shaped like a wing. The girl assumed this was what had caught her.

"Its okay. I was wondering where that cursed lizard monster disappeared to." she replied, her horns twitching with her nod. By her side was a bladed rifle almost as long as she was tall, the barrel faintly trailing smoke. "I don't think we've met before. I'm Bael Moss."

Ruby opened her dry mouth to reply, only to be silenced by a deafening roar. Jerking around with Crescent Rose in hand, she clenched her teeth at an Ursa barreling down upon them, ignoring the huntsmen in every direction to go for them. Aware of Bael readying her weapon, she was about to dash at the beast to kill it.

Right before she did however, a mass of white and black leapt from behind the Ursa, letting out a whoop of cackling laughter as it landed on the monster's back. To the red toned girl's utter astonishment it was Masculum Aries, her white outfit splattered with black ichor; waving her saw blade around, the horned faunus sheared the Ursa's head off just as it registered her, jumping away just as it's body fell apart.

She laughed until she landed in a crouch beside them, her circular blade coated in ichor. "This is fun."

Her gut level revulsion was suppressed, somehow. A mass of inky shadow brushing past her might have been the reason, the cloud of swirling black reforming right in front of a Beowolf. The Grimm was holding unusually still as it tracked the shadows, its head swaying until a black longsword swept out, neatly bisecting the monster. Unlike his teammate, Ron Mavros had his features set into a hard line, even as he turned into shadows again to avoid yet another Grimm slashing at him.

Ruby went into her stance, but to her puzzlement the trio seemed to form a ring around her, keeping the endless Grimm at bay. Ron ghosted from spot to spot to swing his sword, and Masculum couldn't keep the grin off her features at handling her ungainly weapon with unparalleled skill. She frowned while reloading, wondering why they were protecting her of all people.

"Has anyone seen Oscar?" Bael questioned loudly, swinging her rifle around to blow the head off a Boarbatusk.

A yelp caused all four to glance over, latching on a tanned boy hitting the dirt to skid towards them, still gripping a sword the entire time. With a pained groan he flopped up, cringing when he gripped a gash on his arm.

"Ah, there you are. Was worried for a sec." Bael nodded, blasting away another Ursa that almost reached the boy.

"Thanks for that." Ruby said loudly, just about to dash away to rejoin the fight.

Masculum swiped her weapon again, taking the arm off a man sized Berigel. "Great! Now we can go after Cinder!"

Ruby halted in her tracks, her silver eyes as wide as saucers.

"Million lien bounty here we come! And she was nice enough to come to us!" the horned girl cheered as she fought. Slowly craning her head around, Ruby latched her gaze upon the troublemaker, who jerked around to attack a Beowolf.

"What'd you say?" she demanded tightly; although the noise was still overwhelming, she knew the faunus could hear her. Her dark grin was the proof she needed.

"Tell you what, soften her up first and we'll give you a cut. Last I saw her she was a little ways in that direction." Masculum pointed away from the group, even as Bael and Ron snapped their heads to her. Oscar was the last, still trying to staunch his wound.

"Wait, let us come with-" Bael started, but Ruby wasn't listening. A part of the girl felt uneasy at the convenient tip, questioning the validity of the information. The majority of her didn't care.

A gust turned Ruby into a cloud of rose petals, which were swiftly blown away in the maelstrom. She paid it no mind to the team she left behind, nor the huntsmen she could help along the way. Valentine fighting alongside his team, Qrow handling a sizable pack on his own, even Jaune and Pyrrha glancing up from the Deathstalker they were handling together, all of it was forgotten.

All of her attention had narrowed to a fine point, focusing only on getting her across this plain as fast as possible. No longer did she feel awe at the spaceship in the sky, no longer was she sharing the elation of her friends at the battle turning around. She did feel a wash of fear when a screaming flyer, an F302 according to her friends, swooped low to fire on the Grimm, and almost her as well.

One yellow projectile blew past her from several meters away; the air itself whipped after the object, the powerful gust nearly tearing her off her feet. Only by planting her scythe deep into the soil did she avoid the gust, then the whiplash of the atmosphere forcing itself back. Gasping for breath, she picked up her head to scan her surroundings, passing over a lone human twice as she took stock of the many Grimm-

Ruby paused. Returning to the lone fighter so far from the rest of the huntsmen, she coldly observed her pick herself up to dust off her red dress, while the Grimm seemed to ignore her. Though it had been eight months since Ruby saw her last, there was no way she could mistake this woman for anyone else.

Racking the bolt, she blasted herself skyward to head right for her target, landing on the back of an Ursa. She was barely aware of beheading the Grimm, landing on her feet just a few meters away with her scythe at the ready.

A moment ago the woman was evidently regaining her bearings; now she focused her dry gaze upon the girl, letting her arms flop. "This day just keeps getting better and better."

Ruby inhaled deeply, only just resisting the urge to bare her teeth.

In response, Cinder Fall huffed. "You know how this played out last time. You couldn't stop me when I took Beacon apart, and you can't beat me now."

"I'm stronger than I was then." Ruby spat.

"It won't make a difference. This is your last chance." Cinder swiped her arm, and a jagged sword leapt into her grip. "Walk away."

Ruby glared defiantly at the woman who once nearly destroyed everything she held dear, clutching her weapon close.

"Fine. But remember, I offered you an out." Cinder replied dangerously, taking up a stance.

Letting out a war cry Ruby charged ahead, her scythe held out for a wide slash. Cinder met the attack with her sword, rippling flames crawling from her hand to envelop the blade. When the two foes met, there was a tremendous crash of power, loud enough to be heard far and wide.


	34. The Second Battle of Beacon pt3 Revised

**A/N: So, I should explain myself. I reread this chapter and found myself disliking it immensely, so I tried rewriting it. Taking it down was perhaps an overreaction... wait no it was totally overreacting. Whoops.**

 **Thornstrumb is still the 200th person to follow Not What You Expected, so hurrah.**

00000

For the span of a second Crescent Rose almost sang, the curved blade slicing through the air in near silence before crashing against the jagged sword. The impact of the two weapons resounded in a tremendous crash, striking with far more power than either combatant appeared capable of mustering. Just as quickly the two blades slid off each other, the edges of both weapons dropping a patter of red hot sparks onto the stripped topsoil, grinding off one another in a wail of abused metal.

Ruby spun the scythe around for a quick reposition, bringing up the haft to block a rapid strike from the hostile sword. It was a move that worked many times in the past, but the diminutive girl underestimated her opponent's strength; her boots dug miniature trenches in the exposed dirt, flinging handfuls of topsoil behind her when she finally stopped moving. Only then did she reflexively sway, trying to keep herself from toppling over. Although her body was still reeling, she forced herself to to stay upright and alert.

Gritting her teeth, Ruby brought up her scuffed weapon while the enemy sword daintily twirled. The rifle/scythe combination may have earned a number of fresh dents since sunrise, but the loving care its owner doled out meant its wounds were only skin deep. Crescent Rose's wielder hadn't failed the weapon since she created it so long ago, and in return it wasn't about to let her down now. A good thing in her mind, since she was about to push her treasured scythe, and herself, to the limit.

The sword ceased moving, flicking to the woman's side. "A little better I admit. But not good enough."

At the sight of Cinder smirking with undue confidence, Ruby let out a quiet breath to do something about her anger. It was no use; the core of hate she buried long ago was free, and there was nothing she could do to deny it's vile demands.

She vanished into a cloud of rose petals, only to reappear at Cinder's back with her scythe sweeping out. But to her mounting frustration, the woman simply ducked out of the way of her wide lunge, smoothly twisting around so she was behind the attacking girl. Her movements were incredibly fluid, twisting and flowing with a level of grace she wasn't used to seeing. Were it anybody else she would be in awe at such talent. Except right now, said talent just repositioned herself to lash out.

Ruby's snarl turned into a yelp when she vanished again, narrowly avoiding a handful of fire heading right at her spine. The blow missed her by centimeters, incinerating many of her leftover petals. At the same time, Cinder wasn't untouched; right after she reformed, Ruby jerked around to shoot, the recoil pushing her back to the ground. The round aimed wasn't close to her foe, but the woman's sword was. With a sharp crank her bullet took off a hunk of the barbed edge, lacing cracks all over the blade's surface.

Landing with a muffled "oomph." a short distance away, Ruby glanced around to discover Cinder looking at her weapon with muted surprise. When she snapped out a quick glare at the perpetrator, she mustered a confident grin.

"Sure about that?" she replied in a mockery of the woman's tone; she was trying something Yang did sometimes, taunting her opponent so they'd slip up. Though Cinder's huff told her she didn't have much success.

"Okay, I'm not in the mood for games after all." she said, bringing up a fist to crack her neck. "Time to start taking this seriously."

Ruby blinked once, preparing for the retaliation. One second Cinder was several meters away at rest, and the next she reappeared right in front of her, the damaged sword thrusting forward. A quick jerk to the side barely moved her out of the way in time, unintentionally sliding right into the path of a flame coated fist. Right before the blow landed onto her torso, the red toned girl suddenly wondered if she was in over her head. It certainly seemed like the case now.

Her world exploded into pain; a wheezing gasp blew past her lips, throwing a thin wad of spittle flying out with the gasp. But even as she doubled over from the powerful strike, Cinder drove a knee up right into the center of her face. This time a cry left the girl when her body was flung back, her weapon almost slipping from limp fingers. Finally, the woman concluded with another simplistic punch, this one landing on her exposed solar plexus. She didn't move very much, yet the power was sufficient to blast the smaller girl entirely off her feet.

A grunt left Ruby when she hit the dirt; it wasn't due to toughness, but rather because she had only enough breath remaining for a lone huff of displaced air. Rolling onto her back, she fought her grimace to creak her eyes open. She was heaving raggedly the entire time, feeling spikes of pain in her chest.

Cinder was marching towards her in a rapid gait, the start of a smile quickly crushed as she bore down on her. "I'd love to stretch this out, but I have bigger problems. Count yourself-"

 _Boom_ , went the gunshot from outside of her vision.

Ruby wasn't sure which came first; the sharp crack of a medium sized round, or Cinder's head jerking back from the unexpected blow. Whatever the case, the woman shrank back with a gasp of her own, clutching her face as she staggered. The next thing the red toned girl knew, a figure blew past her at a breakneck pace, a sword steaming beside him. Just as the woman steadied herself, the flat side of a shield slammed into her, impacting with enough power to make her stumble in a circle.

Ruby's features lit up despite her pain. On the other side of Cinder, Jaune whipped around with a planted foot dug into the soil, Crocea Mors held at the ready. By the injured girl's flank a second figure skidded to an abrupt halt, an aside glance revealing the arrival as Pyrrha; letting go of her rifle, the redhead held out an open palm, which Ruby clasped at once.

"You okay?" she demanded quickly, almost barking over the background noise. A muffled grunt left her when she pulled, yanking her up with a yelp. The second she let go Ruby stumbled on unsteady feet, only just regaining her balance.

"I-I'm fine." she answered shakily, wincing when she brought Crescent Rose back up.

Nodding in acknowledgment, Pyrrha switched back to Cinder to aim once more. While she helped her, Jaune closed the gap on the woman again, bringing his sword down in a vicious slice. Despite the surprise attack Cinder reacted quickly, whipping her own sword up to meet his. The jagged blade met the silver and black sword along the middle, below the location Ruby shot, and impacted with a high pitched snap. With a sprinkling crackle her sword was sliced in half near instantly, the top half spinning away on its own route as she continued her slice, narrowly missing the sharp edge brushing so closely.

Jaune kept going for several paces before he could stop himself, arresting his momentum to twist himself around. Practiced ease kept the sword hanging at his flank, while the shield was brought up defensively. Cinder however was standing in place, numbly glaring at the sheared length of steel remaining above her grip. Slowly turning around, she met the blond's panting expression with her own puzzled one, her confusion morphing into anger.

"Figures." the woman muttered, almost silent over the noise. Snorting in disgust, she tossed the destroyed sword away to clench her fists.

Jaune tilted his head back, moving his shield down to his hip. "Surrender and you won't be harmed."

Although Pyrrha suppressed a grimace at his bold call, Ruby jerked her head towards him in shock. He was offering her mercy? Everything that had happened; the first Battle, the assassin who nearly killed his sister, the death of his stargate team, and now this raging battle for the fate of Beacon, all of it. Everything could be laid at the feet of Cinder Fall. The sole reason there were two armies all around them was her fault, done for the express purpose of slaughtering everyone in the Academy. The red toned girl was completely dumbstruck at his offer.

Cinder scoffed, her eyes narrowed. "Have you been living under a rock?" she snapped, standing up straight. Right then Ruby noticed there was some redness on her face, no sign of even a bruise. "Or are you that... hang on."

All three tensed, Jaune holding something behind his shield. The woman frowned, raising a brow as she glanced at him and the armed redhead nearby.

"I know who you two are. You vanished off the face of the globe years ago." Cinder stated, rolling her shoulders.

Jaune and Pyrrha tensed, but not Ruby. Although she wanted to know how she found out their secret, it wasn't important right now. Nevertheless she felt relief when their respective gazes narrowed dangerously.

"We're back now. And this means you're outnumbered and outgunned." the blonde replied, pawning an object to his shield hand.

As if on cue, a Nevermore swooped overhead on its path to the battle, shrilly proclaiming its defiance at the huntsmen a short distance away. But its screech was quickly drowned out by another whine, rising in pitch until a rapid object boomed overhead. The bold Nevermore was cut off mere seconds later, a series of high pitched noises cracking the air around them as the creature was perforated. None of the three friends looked away, though Cinder peered upwards to witness the Grimm's death in poorly concealed awe.

"Case in point." Pyrrha chimed in with a tiny smirk, which quickly withered when the woman's hard gaze returned to them.

"So what? I brought Vale to its knees in two months." Cinder snapped, cracking her knuckles. "When I find the Bifrost, I'll make Barsoom my own kingdom in a week." she almost gloated, dismissively waving them off.

But instead of matching her resolve, both the blonde and the redhead raised their eyebrows at her statement. Cinder blinked at their shared confusion, then a scowl overtook her.

"What?"

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "Barsoom isn't real, its out of this hundred year old book."

"Not real? But..." Cinder blinked repeatedly, features twitching dangerously. Finally she groaned, slapping her face hard enough to be heard over the gunfire a short distance away.

"If you fell for that, you won't last an hour out there." Jaune gloated, earning a glare from her. The air temperature seemed to rise several degrees in response.

"You're in over your head." Ruby declared confidently, keeping the rifle aimed at her while she leaned close to the redhead. When she spoke next, her soft question was barely heard over the din. "Hey, what's a Bifrost?"

"I think its the Asgard name for the Stargate." she replied quickly, shaking her head.

"Oh." she went. Though she still had questions, the red toned girl filed those under the 'not important' category for the time being.

Cinder started to bare her teeth, but the woman forced her curled lips back down. When she stood up straight again a hand came up to crack her neck, even as another F302 raced overhead.

"There's nothing you can throw at me that I can't handle. In fact." a dark grin overtook her features. "You seem to know a lot about all this stuff. How about a counter offer? Tell me everything you know about the ring, and I'll let you go free. I have no quarrel with either of you."

"No way." Ruby growled, earning a brief look from the redhead.

Jaune smirked. "Not a bad idea. Here's my answer."

He whipped his shield aside, making Cinder bring her up flame covered hands to block. But instead of revealing a blade, Jaune extended his concealed arm up to point at the woman, the headpiece of the Zat'nik'tel already primed. A quick squeeze of the trigger, and the alien weapon unleashed a bolt of stunning power.

Cinder took the shot, grunting as she reflexively flinched. The woman's stance twitched, grimacing as a shudder ran through her body. She neither fell, cried out, or collapsed into unconsciousness.

Ruby blinked. As did Pyrrha.

"Uh..." Jaune went, his mouth cracked open while the Zat continued to stay in place.

Shaking her head, Cinder straightened herself out to affix him with an annoyed glare. "What'd you just shoot me with?"

"Wait, isn't that supposed to...?" Ruby trailed off, sparing a leery glance at the Zat.

"Yeah, it is. I've... never seen this happen before." Pyrrha admitted.

"Oh, kay." Jaune gulped and fired again, watching Cinder twitch without much effect. A third shot caused her to snort, and in doing so made his fourth go wild, caused by her dashing over in an eye blink.

He drew back to avoid her snatching grip, reaching towards him as fast as a viper. The young man only just cleared his shield, but the Zat remained in grasping range a second too long. Stumbling back to reorient himself, Jaune returned to his previous defensive stance, grimacing at Cinder clutching her new prize. Settling a hard gaze upon him, the woman grabbed two of the segments of the Zat and twisted, the shell cracking as she ripped it apart.

"Your move." she said, tossing the destroyed alien weapon away.

Pyrrha switched Miló to javelin form and took off, snatching her shield off her back mid sprint. Ruby took a breath herself, and vanished into rose petals. Upon noticing the girls, Jaune charged towards the woman with his sword out in a swing, a snarl on his lips. All three weapons; the silver and black sword, the bronze tinted javelin, and the curved steel of a scythe reached their target in almost perfect synchronization, each coming down on the woman in a red dress. And just as quickly, she reacted.

Cinder weaved around Jaune's sideways blow, twisted her head around the stabbing javelin of Pyrrha, and jerked back just far enough for Ruby's downward strike. All three friends were simultaneously off balanced by their attacks failing to connect, allowing her free reign to slam her flame covered fists together, the concentrated Dust residue and Aura creating a powerful concussive blast. It was like a small bomb, sending all three limply tumbling away in a thunderclap of raw power.

One after another, they hit the ground, each one crumpling with a cry. Cinder saw their pain, and methodically cracked her neck. "Alright, time to work off some frustration."

00000

Pendergast kept a close eye on the shifting battle far below the _Prometheus_ , grimacing through an ever growing stream of bad news. Although the greying Colonel wanted to say the situation was no longer in doubt, every setback reported caused the man to grip his armrests tighter.

"Turret Seventeen burned out, repair teams are moving in. Turrets Twenty Two, Twenty, Nineteen, Thirteen, Seven, and Four are confirmed nonfunctional. We're starting to redline across the board."

"Last of the conventional ordnance is spent, all 302s are dry on missiles. We're down to railguns and nukes only sir."

"Shields holding steady."

Lionel planned on having _words_ with the engineers once they returned to Earth. If such a short time in battle taxed the ship this much, then a major overhaul was long overdue.

" _This is Blue Five, we are bingo munitions. Requesting permission to fall back._ "

" _Blue Two reporting, wells run dry here too._ "

The Colonel hit his comm. "Blue Two, Blue Five, break off and get some distance. All remaining 302s, clear out when you're out of ammo, not a second sooner."

" _Copy_." came a brief chorus.

"Get a repair crew on every burned out gun, if they're fried grab the ammo and feed it into the remaining batteries." Pendergast commanded, leaning forward in his seat.

"Yes sir." an Airman snapped to, hunching over a comm panel.

Far below, Pendergast saw the tide starting to turn. The Rangers and Russian armor had helped the Atlesian forces break the White Fang advance, though increasing numbers of Grimm were being drawn in to the hammered lines. He could see missiles and lasers lashing out to the black specks encroaching on them, killing many but far from all. Like clockwork the T90s were destroying a mass of enemies every few seconds, creating gouts of billowing flame over target clusters, yet their constant attacks meant few of the tanks could exploit their significant range. Larger Grimm were a serious problem however, which redirecting the remaining turrets remedied. Already there had been several close calls.

However, the attention the lines gathered drew focus away from the other combatants. The multicolored stains of Beacon's Huntsmen were regrouping on a hill a short distance from the trenches, seemingly boiling away the black specks on contact. Even though their numbers had clearly shrunk, the Huntsmen were still reaping a toll on the swarming monsters, creating a mist of black ash on the edges of their rally point. To ensure none of his vessel's fire caught any of them by mistake, Pendergast reluctantly ordered his guns away from their combat zone. The most he could do was take out some of the larger beasts left on the field.

Last were a steel colored legion of machines, systematically marching out from the airship's ruins. The least effective of the major gatherings, the androids were nonetheless thinning out the decreasing numbers of Grimm coming from the forest. Even as the robots were destroyed by either Grimm or the White Fang, they didn't let up the pressure. The two remaining walker robots he could spot were causing significant damage as well; one stayed on top of the ship to rain down fire support, while the other contented itself by rushing right into the fray, smashing or blasting any foe the pilot could find.

Pendergast had to forcibly remind himself he was watching a battle; people were dying in droves beyond his stuffy bridge, he had to end this as soon as possible.

"Lay down a burst on the forest line, thin them out from the source." he directed, hoping a fusillade of high velocity slugs would keep the creatures in the woods.

"Roger." the helmsman responded, immediately refocusing on his display when it beeped. "Sir, incoming transmission."

"From who?" he demanded tightly.

"Its... the Atlas forces. They're hailing us." he reported quickly.

"Put em on."

The radio crackled to life, the background noise swiftly clearing up. " _-peat, this is Red Two to the_ Prometheus _. Respond._ "

"This is _Prometheus_ , we read you Red Two." Pendergast answered quickly, gripping his armrest.

" _Copy that. The enemy forces attacking Vale have been routed, friendlies are moving in to reinforce Beacon._ " the unseen Atlesian informed. Relief surged through the sagging bridge crew, and nowhere was this more evident than the Colonel slumping back in his seat.

"Good to hear Red Two." Pendergast smiled for the first time since he woke up. "I'll pass the word down."

" _Rodger_ Prometheus _, tell your men to hang on a little longer. We're sending everything we have your way. Red Two out._ "

00000

Despite a rather poor start, Winter's day had been turning around remarkably fast. The white haired woman fully expected to be playing firefighter to Vale's defenses all day long (likely dying in the process), either directing overenthusiastic volunteers or keeping her troops focused on the mission, on top of stopping the Grimm from overrunning the defenders. Her itinerary from sunrise certainly gave such an impression.

And yet here she was now, hunched over a Bullhead's pilots with a comm interface in hand, keeping a veritable fleet of airships in a rough formation. A mixture of civilian airbuses, police craft, and heavily armed gunships, every one of the almost hundred strong VTOL armada was loaded with excited fighters, eager to take the fight to the Grimm. Directing this ad hoc force was as simple as pointing them towards Beacon, although the hard part was keeping enough distance between each craft to avoid crashing into one another.

The howling gale from the open hatches was a nuisance all things considered, but it beat having to socialize with her unwanted companions. But when the comms went silent, the Commander sighed under her breath. She had little choice but to crane her head over her shoulder, to check on her erstwhile (and unwanted) companions.

"Nice try, but not good enough. Here." yelled Taiyang over the wind, leaning back while his legs dangled in open air. From a wallet he produced a photo for the couple beside him, jostling his axe out of the way when he handed it over.

Kali snatched the picture away before the wind stole it, placing the tiny photo between her and Ghira, while he cupped a hand around it for extra protection. The two faunus squinted at the tiny prize, examining its surface; mere seconds later he quickly slapped a hand over his mouth, while she gasped in a barely restrained squeal.

"They're so adorable!" she exclaimed, reluctantly handing the photo back over.

"Told ya. My girls were the dress up queens." Taiyang boasted, causing Ghira to laugh uproariously.

"Okay, you got us there. But cmon, how do you match the yarn ball story?" he challenged, reaching over his wife to playfully nudge the chuckling blonde. Even a sudden jolt from turbulence failed to dampen his mood.

"Well I could say mud pies in the oven. But you're right, yarn filled redecoration is pretty funny." Taiyang laughed.

When the comm crackled again, Winter snatched up the device to appear busy. Unfortunately for her patience, the speaker wasn't an Atlesian soldier or Vale militiaman.

" _Commander, status?_ "

Winter took a breath, silently reminding herself there were worse people she could be speaking to. "All green Major. You?"

" _Ditto. Kinda wish I had a squadron of B-52s, but this'll work._ "

"And I wish I had a dozen Claymore-class Destroyers. We'll make do with what we have." Winter leaned over the pilots, peering out the cockpit window.

The Bullhead Washington and his team hopped into was still at their flanks, the Major hopefully assisting with coordinating this sloppy relief force. Again she suppressed the stab of bitter envy at the Earther soldier taking the next airship without her, leaving the woman in the company of her unwanted... Winter actually didn't know what to classify her passengers as. But the woman could definitely say she would sooner jump out without a chute than label them in-laws.

" _A man can dream though, we- shit, hostile eleven'oh'clock._ " Washington abruptly cut the line, the cue for Winter to snap her head forward.

Swooping into the fleet's path was a Gryphon, an unusually large specimen one at least forty meters long, its six limbed form rotunded as opposed to the flatter Nevermore breeds. The colossal beast flared its wings in front of the forces, letting out a screech as its claws were bared. Winter was peripherally aware of several Bullheads breaking formation, diving high or low to get out of the way. Being in a gunship, she had the means to fight back, and a whine of a spooling gun told her the pilots were already on it.

But before any shots were fired, a burst of yellow projectiles flew overhead, stitching across the Gyphon with unerring accuracy. The beast's screech turned into a surprised gurgle as it jerked back, coinciding with a rising scream of a casually broken sound barrier. Winter had to grip the seats when the gunship rocked more than before, listening to the pilots cursing and barely catching a black shape zipping past.

"Hey, learn to fly!" Taiyang shouted indignantly.

Ignoring him, Winter peered out to see if any craft went down, sighing in relief when she didn't spot a fresh wreck. Reflexes placed the comm back to her ear when it crackled, the device speaking with a twangy accent she never heard before.

" _This is Blue Leader to Vale flyers. Keep em coming boys, we got your backs._ "

Winter could hear the alien craft screaming overhead, but she couldn't see their supposed escorts. What she saw quite clearly were the few remaining aerial Grimm in sight being cut down, the beasts dying at a hyperactive tempo. Her reservations for the unexpected help came to a fiery end when the comm alighted again, this time with Washington on the line.

" _You heard the man, the boys and girls down there held out long enough._ "

A staticky cheer rose from the machine, and in spite of her still present authority, the pilots joined in with an excited whoop. Winter didn't have time to protest before they surged the controls forward, nearly dragging her out of the hatch. She had a similar problem as more than fifteen hundred Atlas soldiers, Vale militia, and civilian volunteers: the need to join the fight as quickly as possible.

Several kilometers away from the rag tag force, three enormous shapes were powering back to the plain as fast as they could move. Escorts outpaced the massive airships, the vessels' many antigrav emitters glowing dangerously bright. Now that the salvaged laser cannon was confirmed destroyed and the worst of the aerial horde cleared, the Atlas warships had no more reason to keep their distance.

00000

Slamming into the shattered cobblestone once again, Yang bounced once before skidding to a halt. Sucking in a copper tasting breath, the blonde inhaled a mouthful of crunchy grit and coughed, feeling a stab of pain in her ribs. Nevertheless she planted her fists on the ground and pushed, heaving from just getting her face off the ground. When some warm fluid trailed down her temple towards her jaw, she just wiped it away. Ignoring the pain was becoming harder and harder, although the blonde kept at it in single minded determination.

Hacking up a wad of bloody phlegm, she craned her head to the unmoving form of Ren a few meters away. The sable haired young man was lying face down with a bloody gash across his back, both pistols outside of his motionless grip. Was he still breathing? She didn't know, and couldn't tell. But right now she didn't have time to care.

Feeling her legs wobble uncertainly, Yang turned herself around to face their enemy again. The entire time she was suppressing a cringe of pain, trying to ignore her body's protests. Blinking away stars in her vision, she internally took stock of her semblance's built up energy and found it wanting, although there wasn't much she could do about it. That done, she peered towards the fight she was blown away from, where her remaining friends fought on. Like the blonde, they were giving it their all. And just like Yang, their all just wasn't enough.

Blake was out of the fight; she took a lash of dark power across her torso when she tried cutting the Grimm woman. She tried a practice honed trick, creating a shadow clone to confuse the foe so she could get closer. The talking Grimm fell for it, spearing three successive distractions in a row, and when Blake leapt in close she whipped around with a fist covered in black smoke, blasting her into a tree. Her speed was absolutely jaw dropping.

 _And unfair_ , she added bitterly.

Blake hadn't rejoined the fight as far as Yang could see, so she assumed her friend was knocked out. Out cold, or... she wasn't helping anymore. Ren being slapped aside when he summersaulted overhead should've given Blake the perfect opening, but that didn't work. In fact, very little they tried worked.

This left Weiss and Nora still in one piece, mostly. They had a simple arrangement going; the ginger would rush forward hammer first, and the heiress would either fire a vial of Dust or try to get a few slashes in. As Yang stumbled back to the fray, she saw them try their new plan again.

Weiss dashed out of the way of a spear of black power, rapier up as she let a gale force wind flow. The robed Grimm raised an arm to block the powerful gust, unaware of Nora sprinting to the periphery of the wind's field. Yang blinked when she realized what she was doing, the growling berserker using the enemy's own body to shield herself from the effects. When the Dust wore off the Grimm woman flung her arm aside, black energy roiling over her forearms. She had her back to the hammer wielding ginger, who swung her weapon overhead with a barely restrained snarl on her features.

A heartbeat before the hammer made contact, more energy swirled over the back of her neck, coalescing into a shimmering barrier. The black head of Nora's hammer slammed into the barrier, the strength behind her rage fueled attack great enough to boom across in a short lived shockwave, and managed to stumble the woman a little. Just as the rebound vibrated down the shaft she swing around, backhanding the orange haired girl away. The weapon fell from Nora's grasp, the girl falling limply much like Yang did.

The _thing_ they faced ignored Weiss to glance at her latest victim, her expression a blank mask. Then she noticed the blonde stumbling closer, and her lip curled.

"Why can't any of you just die?" she questioned in annoyance, tugging on her robe's sleeve to smooth out the fabric. Scoffing at the blonde limping ever closer, she began to glide over the cobblestone walkway. "Stubborn, every last one of you."

Five huntsmen, hundreds of bullets from two different worlds, a vast number of attempted stabs, slashes, and blunt attacks, flung at this one foe. All their efforts, and the results amounted to a darkened bruise on her jaw.

With a snarl Weiss charged forward, weaving side to side to dodge any retaliation. The woman didn't bother reacting until she was nearly upon her, sweeping her arm out to catch the girl's blade. A tug caught the heiress off balance, and when Weiss tried to escape she merely tightened her grip. Another jerk brought the huntress in front of her, the white haired girl just letting go when dark power flowed into her free hand. She waved contemptuously, and the power launched forward to blast the girl right in the chest.

"Omph-" was all Weiss got out before she was brushed aside, unable to take Myrtenaster back when she was sent flying into a tree. She hit the truck and cracked it, hitting the grass seconds ahead of a busted branch falling on top of her.

The woman lifted her new prize to chest level, proceeding to examine the weapon despite closing the gap to the last fighter. When she stopped to thumb the half empty cylinder, Yang kept shuffling ahead with a grimace.

"Excellent craftsmanship." she said, sounding vaguely impressed when she looked up. "Your counterpart certainly knows how to make a good weapon."

Yang didn't deign herself with replying. She only crept ahead at the same pace, loading in the last of her shells with shaking hands. Her semblance was undercharged from what she preferred, although she didn't have much of an option.

"You fought well, all of you. But you never stood a chance." she stated flatly, unsmiling and not boastful. "None of you did."

At last the blonde stopped, halting a sneer when the woman scoffed again. Raising her fists to chest level, Yang readied her usual combat stance, breathing through her mouth at the displeased stare she now had. Myrtenaster twirled in her grip, the inhuman being grabbing the rapier at the hilt as her lip curled. Her entire body rippled, flinging the sword away in the blink of an eye; Yang gasped when the blade sank into soft flesh, feeling a wash of fear in spite of everything that had happened. Sucking in a breath, she braced herself for the fresh injury, surely to be her last.

It took her a second to realize she was unharmed.

Blinking in utter astonishment, Yang found her eyes drawn to the quivering blade hanging in midair, half of the blade suddenly missing. Just as red began to dribble onto the pavement she heard a drawn out groan, like somebody was in pain. The woman's stance shifted, seeming to go on the defensive all of a sudden. When she blinked again the blonde discovered why, when a man in ragged white robes simply appeared in front of her.

The man, the unnaturally pale man, collapsed to his knees with a hand planted on the ground. He was heaving for breath, his free hand gingerly feeling alone the rapier sticking out of his midsection.

"H-how..." he croaked. In response, the woman frowned.

"Strange. I couldn't see you, nor could I hear you. Did I really strike you on accident?" she questioned in puzzlement.

Clenching her teeth, Yang drew on her reserves of strength to meander closer to the man. Her intention wasn't entirely obvious, but she was eyeing the sword more than the injured stranger. Although by no means a swordswoman, she could still get some use out of the rapier, even if it meant using her friend's weapon as a club. Leaving her accidental savior behind wasn't something she wanted to do, but she had to kill this thing before she finished off both of them. Coming up to the stranger, she gingerly extended her hand to reach.

"Hey." she winced once she was beside him, hating how weak she sounded. "Here, get out of-"

Faster than she could react the man snapped, latching ahold of her forearm. A reflexive flinch caused her to tug hard, but his tight grip wasn't slackening whatsoever.

"Gah, let go..." Yang started to jerk harder, but then she realized something.

The rough bandages on his forearm and strangely coarse skin rubbed against her own, and it was somehow affecting her. A bizarre warmth seemed to crawl from his contact, swimming up her forearm towards the rest of her body. Where the warmth went, the pain simmered and fled, and in its wake came newfound strength. The many cuts she had closed up, staunching her leaking blood in rapidly formed scar tissue. Her wide eyes tracked the rapid progress of the warmth, quickly washing over her entire form.

Blinking once more, she found her wide eyes drawn to the man's pained expression. He was staring at her intensely, in a way she wasn't used to seeing; it wasn't perverted want or a sneer, but something else, like he was trying to silently push her. Though his breath was coming out in ragged gasps, his slackening grip dropped without resistance.

"What did you..." she tried to ask, realizing she felt almost as good as when the fight started.

"Not, ah, important." even in pain, the man's voice was almost melodic. "Take my strength young huntress, and defeat this monster."

He collapsed with a groan, though she could tell he was still fully conscious. Utterly lost, Yang glanced to the woman; her lips was curled, and she was glaring at the stranger.

"What are you?" she coldly demanded. Her black eyes flicked once, and suddenly there was a fist in her face.

Yang landed as the woman staggered, launching at her again in a heartbeat with a cry on her lips. Her fists were repeatedly driven into the inhuman being's form with animalistic fury, forcing her to go on the defensive. Even as shadowy power roiled over the woman's forearms, she had to block the blonde's all out assault instead of retaliating. Grunts of effort escaped her lips with every deflected attack, quiet compared to the human's throaty snarls.

She punched again and again, gritting her teeth from the effort. Yang's last shells were used only when the woman was exposed; forcing one arm aside, the blonde fired a round point blank into her chest, this time causing a noticeable gasp. Grinning, she ducked away from a lancing fist to punch her arm; she was certain there was a crack from the limb, and the woman's heave told her she did something. Yang was sure she'd be doing a lot more damage if her semblance had more charge, but she had to make do with what she had.

When Ember Cecelia clicked empty, Yang knew she was out of time. She had to end this, now. Ducking under the woman's sweeping arms, she kicked her legs as hard as she possibly could, propelling herself right towards the inhuman being. Her drawn back fists were thrusted forward, aimed at the woman's face; Yang figured if she could blind her foe, that would make it way easier to kill her. She considered such dirty tricks beneath her, although that was before she fought something immune to her usual fair style.

Centimeters from her goal, powerful grips latched onto the undersides of her biceps. Snarling indignantly, Yang thrashed when the woman's strong hold jerked her back, writhing and kicking like a captured child. The woman however took a deep breath, seething at the prize in her hands. Drawing her head back, the woman slammed her forehead into the blonde's skull with vast force, the sharp crack of the hit causing her to see stars. Her head swirling, Yang couldn't resist the woman letting go of one arm to punch her torso, knocking her away like a discarded toy.

Sliding to a halt beside the stranger, Yang flopped listlessly at his side. Ragged breaths left her lips, unable to do anything about the spikes of pain in her cranium. Even when Mytenaster clattered to the ground in front of her she barely reacted, her lilac eyes watching the robed man flop back with a hand clamped over the bloody hole in his chest. Idly she noted it didn't seem to be near anything vital, although he was clearly at a risk of bleeding out. Just as idly, Yang noticed he accidentally opened the revolver's hinge when he yanked it free. There, centimeters from her hand, sat an exposed casing which had jostled loose when the weapon fell.

An unassuming vial of red Dust.

She stared at the canister of refined material, stuff which had taken ever larger bites out of Weiss' dwindling funds. Stuff which was the key to her world's survival for all these centuries. She stared and stared, her lilac eyes utterly focused on the tiny object.

The man rolled to his side, heaving as he focused on the approaching woman. Until he noticed Yang's hand snaking towards the canister; his eyes switched between the girl and her foe several times, his brow noticeably rising. Swallowing a lump, a fresh gasp escaped him as he rose to his feet, visibly shaking on wobbly feet as he staggered upright. His actions caused the woman to finally cease advancing, cooly regarding the pale stranger clutching his side.

"I command you to stop." he said aloud, raising a hand towards the woman. Schooling his features to neutrality, he took exactly three steps forward, catching the sword's hilt on his foot to drag it closer.

She raised a brow. "I can tell now. You are neither human nor faunus, but an entity outside of creation. You're something which doesn't belong here."

"I am Faramir." the man declared, shoulders rising and sagging from his breathing. "It was I who breathed life into this world, and your kind. You owe your existence to me."

"Are you now." she tipped her head back, her black eyes focused upon the man. "Faramir, I am Salem. And I bow to no one."

"Not even your creator?" he questioned coldly.

"A creator who let his beasts roam free? I see little reason to give you my attention, let alone my loyalty." Salem calmly refuted, black power flowing down her arm.

"You will regret this." Faramir winced at another spike of pain, but he held his ground.

Salem smiled. "No, I believe I will enjoy this."

She swept her arm, and the power lashed out as a whip; Faramir took the blow to his chest, flinging him aside just like the humans minutes earlier. Only a muffled grunt left him when he fell into a bush, knocking loose a brief cloud of dying leaves. The inhuman woman watched his fall, keeping a half turned smirk.

"What a puny god. How could this pitiful being have forged the Grimm?" she wondered aloud, giving her formerly injured arm an inspective glamce. "Oh well, now I have nothing left between myself and Ozpin."

Salem turned to prowl towards the inner courtyard, where the headmaster was dragged from the fighting. Before she crossed a few paces however, a groan caught her attention. Her black eyes hovered over the blonde, noting how pathetic she looked now. Curled up with her hands clutching her chest, one leg stretching out to rejoin its idly squirming counterpart, the blonde looked so much like a fallen infant. Over countless centuries Salem had pondered how such pathetic creatures endured for as long as they had, and even after all this time she so few answers.

A fresh groan, louder and far more annoying than before, made up the dark lord's mind. Flowing towards the blonde, she harrumphed in what seemed like disappointment.

"You can't even stand now, can you? Have you truly exhausted all of your strength, or are you hanging on to a misguided hope of mercy?" stopping over her, the girl curled in on herself more. "Absolutely pathetic. You can't even muster the dignity to die on your-"

Something tiny was flung from the girl's hand, a weak underarmed toss from ground level. Salem found her eyes tracking the small object, only realizing what the vial was centimeters away from contacting her body. Before the shadowy power could form a barrier, the half empty canister of fire Dust impacted, and the notoriously volatile material exploded into a short lived fireball. It swiftly engulfed the woman's head in hungry flames, though its very nature snuffed the miniature inferno out in mere seconds.

Recoiling from the vanishing flames, Salem coughed as she waved the fumes out of her face, revulsion written all over her expression. With her eyes squinted, she barely detected the human sized mass flying right into her milliseconds before Yang slammed into her, latching her hand and legs onto her body. Snarling, the woman moved to tear this girl off her, and backhand her as she had several times now. But unlike the other attempts, the human beat her to the punch.

Salem gasped, her entire body twitching as she froze. Her greater weight kept her upright even as her weight settled on her chest, securely hanging on with no intention of letting go. For the first time in generations, true emotion was on her expression; surprise at her second wind, anger for the underhanded attack, and now, raw _fear._ The cause was obvious.

There was a knife sticking out of her throat, the sharp edge buried in her jugular.

It was a simple utility blade, available anywhere in the Four Kingdoms for a few lien, with the sharpened metal coated in fire Dust, and the leather covered handle enclosed by Yang's right hand. Millimeters from each other's faces, the blonde grinned in primal satisfaction.

"Gotcha." Yang said, ripping the knife across Salem's throat.

Black ichor spewed out, coating the girl's fist immediately as the woman thrashed. Yang jumped away as fast she could, hearing something begin to sizzle ominously. When she landed and stumbled, she glanced to her hand and gasped; the stuff was dissolving into her flesh, burning away her skin and weapon from contact alone. Frantic wiping did little besides spread the corrosive ichor to her other hand, the pain reaching a new crescendo. Crying out did nothing, the blonde's wide eyes locked onto her burning hands. The ichor ate through her flesh as if it weren't there, acrid wisps rising to make her cough raggedly.

She was hardly watching Salem writhe and sway, coughing in panicked gulps while she clutched her bleeding throat, even as the stuff boiled down the front of her chest. She pawed at the knife left in place, finally succeeding in slapping the offending object away, although by this point it was far too late.

Yang fell to her knees just as Salem collapsed, slowly turning her quivering expression away from her scoured hands. The woman hit the ground and thrashed, her mindless jerking slowing while she watched. As she grew still, her body was decaying into formless matter, seeming to break down everywhere rather than start from any one point. Only her robe remained intact, the fabric bubbling as its owner disintegrated.

But as the ash spread ever further, a black mass seemed to rise from her corpse, swirling in the air above her. It was a translucent cloud of shadow, flowing to its own accord as opposed to moving with the wind. Blinking, she watched the mass start to rise... then unexpectedly twitch.

The periphery of the cloud was being drawn away, causing the rest of the shadows to twitch like an agitated beast. Yet more of the clouds joined the captured essence, swirling in on itself into a shrinking locale. Despite her agony Yang watched in awe, jaw hanging open at the cloud was drawn into a glowing yellow dot hanging in the air, the shadowy mass forming a roiling sphere around the light. For a second she thought she saw the outline of an enraged face in the smoke, but she couldn't tell for sure before the last of it floated, or was sucked, into the condensed sphere.

Two circular panes of glass floated beside the newly created black orb, curling inwards to form a pair of convex shapes, which clamped together to enclose the shadows. There was a flash of light which circled the new sphere, and then the sealed ball dropped into an open palm. The air shuddered in a weak yet far reaching rumble, almost as if the world itself skipped a beat.

Jaw hanging open, Yang saw the hand lift the sphere up to the light, inspecting the roiling darkness encased within. With a grunt, the girl nodded.

"This will work." she said to herself.

"Wha... how...?" was all the dumbstruck blonde could say to the event. The horned girl glanced away from her new prize, examining the injured survivor with a disinterested eye.

Bael Moss merely swiped a hand at her. "Sleep."

Yang dropped like a stone, unconscious before she hit the ground. Nodding in dull satisfaction, Bael turned to stride away from the hard won fight without a look back. She ignored the injured girls and Salem's body, passing through the open courtyard at a brisk pace. All the while she examined her prize, letting the sunlight play off the ever changing interior of the prison.

A short distance away the horned girl was joined by her companions, one reforming into a solid form of a tall young man in black, the other in a red and white outfit daintily skipping, both going to Bael's side. The fact the latter was splattered with black gore didn't seem to matter to any of the interlopers.

"So, what's the word?" asked Ron, peering at the last girl smirking in anticipation while her arms swung.

"We're done here." Bael replied, the mismatched pair falling into lockstep with her. "King is removed from the board, and Queen will follow suit shortly. Two of the three primary objectives have been fulfilled, and three of the eight secondary objectives have been met." she smiled, massaging her newest acquisition. "We even managed to eliminate Subject Fifty Seven. I wondered where that demonic creature escaped to."

"Aw, I liked the cursed lizard monster." Ram said unhappily, wiping a splotch of blood away from her mouth.

"Drakid." Ron corrected.

"Lizard monster. It sounds better." she corrected back.

"Regardless, even if we fail to nab a designated subject, this operation is hereby a conditional success." Bael announced, softly grinning with the orb in her hand.

"Awesome!" the girl in white pumped a fist in victory.

"Good haul." the man in black nodded with a smile.

"Agreed. Now its time to wrap things up." she turned her head, pocketing the sphere. "Ron, head to the NID office in Colorado Springs. Ransack their files and find whoever's after Sandra and Alley Hammond. Take Neo with you when you have the information, she should be rested by then."

"Gotcha." at her command, the lanky man in black turned to stride away, and Bael switched to her other partner.

"Ram, I want you to go to Haven and terminate Watts, Hazel, and Lionheart." she ordered crisply.

The horned girl creaked her head to the side. "Thought you wanted to keep him around?"

"His assistant is far more competent, and is open to our bribes. The good headmaster is no longer required." she explained, passing by the tree Weiss laid under without a glance. "When you're done, find Taurus and get rid of him. Try to make it look like an accident." she stressed the last line, a hint of a frown on her face.

"Will do." Ram smiled, grinning unseemly at the command. At least for a second, until a puzzled frown crossed her. "One thing though."

"Yes?" Bael questioned.

"What about the runt? He knows too much." she frowned, nodding in the direction of the gates.

Following her direction, Bael saw the topic of discussion: Oscar Pine was still where she left him, standing alone at the entranceway with his sword in hand. The boy yelled with every swing of the blade she gifted him, using his hastily taught skills to keep the Grimm back. It was a one man stand worthy of praise, the mere human succeeding in holding off any reinforcements Salem had summoned.

"Haven't decided yet. Although..." she pursed her lips in thought, briefly rubbing her jaw.

"Well if you want a new pet, I'm okay with it. The big guy could use a pal." Ram shrugged with raised hands, winking at her suggestively.

"I'll think of something. Now get going." she waved a hand in an apparent dismissal, and Ram took off in a separate direction. Bael continued to close in on the human, mentally weighing the pros and cons of taking on another stowaway.


	35. Ending the Second Battle of Beacon

_**B/N: He woke me up twice for this, first last night and this morning. So, happy late Halloween?**_

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A nearly imperceptible shockwave swept out from Beacon, rolling away in every direction. Those more observant or attuned could have sensed this wave's passing, detecting what felt like a vast power being cut off from the world. But with a raging battle for the fate of the Academy so close, few people from any world even noticed the disruption to the natural order of something fundamental and intrinsic to Remnant ceasing to be. What people; humans and faunus alike did notice, was the effect the change had.

The wave rolled over the Grimm, and immediately the beasts were stunned; Beowolves in the middle of attacking suddenly lost their footing, falling over as if shocked. Larger monsters such as Deathstalkers and King Taijitu dropped where they stood, weakly flailing their limbs as they stumbled onto the ground. The handful of remaining Nevermore seized up in midair, letting themselves plummet from the skies as dead weight. Almost in unison, more than fifteen thousand bestial throats were abruptly silenced.

Qrow halted mid slash nearby the regrouping students and teachers, watching in bafflement as the multitudes of Grimm all around the huntsmen just _stopped_. Lowering his sword to sweep his sweat soaked head around, the panting man raised a brow at the sight. "What the...?"

Atop of the airship, the Paladin opened its hatch to allow the pilots to see with their own eyes. Although the two operators hailed from different worlds, their confusion was nearly identical.

"What's going on? What's happening to the Grimm?" Carter questioned, looking away from her hacked display. On the screen were multitudes of icons, showing functional androids she was directing. A moment ago the numbers ceased dropping.

The wounded ensign, pressed into service to operate the mech, peered at the blonde. "I don't know, I've never seen this happen before."

Not so far away, another Paladin was meeting its end. A massive Berigel tossed the mech with a deafening roar, the human on top barely managing to jump off in time. The ten meter tall monster beat its fists onto its chest, shaking the ground when it darted to the flailing mech. Ripping off a sluggish arm to throw away, the snarling Berigel then grabbed onto the center hatch and yanked, tearing it off in a screech of abused metal. Flinging the barrier to the side, the ape glared at Teal'c and Daniel exposed to open air. When the Jaffa raised his new prize to the Berigel, it roared at the challenge.

But the wave hit in the middle of a snarl, unexpectedly making the colossal beast totter while its expression went slack. Teal'c raised a brow at the dumbstruck Grimm which slew his precious mech, keeping his weapon trained on the beast. A pair of arrows in quick succession caught his attention however, the twin projectiles impacting right in the Berigel's eyes. Amazingly, it only grunted at the painful blow.

Ducking at an object swiftly coming up behind him, Teal'c noted his newest companion blowing past him to the Grimm. The Berigel feebly jerked when Eliane jumped on its arm, the blonde racing up its limb to the head, sword point first. Sinking her blade into the pus leaking eye finally elicited a more familiar growl, but by then it was too late; she skewered the monsters brainpan, and jumped off when it fell silent.

Elaine landed on the Paladin's leg when the Grimm impacted in a miniature quake, crouching with her sword held out as it blossomed out in a cloud of noxious ash. When she stood up, the first thing she did was turn around to the men, wearing a look of utter confusion.

"What is happening?" Teal'c questioned, weapon in hand as he swept his gaze over the Grimm in sight. All he could see were affected by the same event.

"I don't know. I've never seen or heard of anything like this." Eliane quietly admitted.

Pulling himself out of the cockpit, Daniel groaned as he stood up, glancing around while he stretched sore muscles. "Okay, this is very much not normal. How much do you wanna bet this is Jack's doing?"

"I will not rule out the possibility. But for now, we should exploit this opening." Teal'c announced, bending over to dig his Staff out of the machine. He then tossed the proven weapon into Daniel's displeased arms, bringing up his new tool as Eliane swung her sword around.

At the base of the same airstrip as Carter, O'Neill and Ironwood ceased firing when the beasts were dazed by the imperceptible event. From behind the cover of broken hull plates, the two men, one armed with a scavenged rifle, and the other sporting a machine gun with diminishing ammo supply, glanced to each other in mutual puzzlement.

"Huh, weird." O'Neill shrugged, then began spraying gunfire once again.

"What did you do?" Ironwood demanded, though he too resumed shooting.

"Wasn't me." he yelled, the closest Grimm barely reacting to the bullets pelting them.

"I don't believe you!" the General shouted back.

"If this were me, there'd be more explosions!" O'Neill retorted; the second he finished, a tank shell impacted a lethargic King Taijitu, destroying the serpent in one shot. "Like that!"

00000

At the trenches, the wave hit just as Reynolds finished off the last belt for his M60. The Marine Colonel watched in astonishment as the relentless creatures begin to stumble and collapse, like each one was Zatted simultaneously. Chest heaving, he set the machine gun aside and risked leaning over the dugout; as far as he could see, the entirety of the attacking horde was struck with this bizarre malaise. The fire from the White Fang forces began to step down too, he assumed they were just as confounded at the unexpected behavior.

"This place sure is freaky." he muttered.

But when he glanced over the friendly lines, he saw a very different reaction to the event. Activity from the joint Atlas/Ranger forces was rising, officers barking commands and relocating the men, all of them shifting forward. Reynolds needed no clairvoyance to guess what they were preparing to do. And when he checked on the four men he led, he saw them reach the same conclusion as him.

"So boys, whaddya say to an old fashioned charge?" he grinned.

His answer came from the outsider of his team, tossing a spare M4 and a vest loaded with spare magazines at him. Grabbing the first was easy, catching the second however briefly knocked him off balance. In the time it took to right himself, Walsch darted to the dugout's periphery with the Marines at his side, grinning darkly when he glanced over.

"It's payback time sir." he declared as he racked his M4's bolt, to the team's vigorous approval.

"Sounds good." Reynolds decided to agree, planting a fresh grenade on his M203's slide. "Five against a thousand aren't goods, so let's wait until-"

From the trenches came a single loud voice, alone yet booming over the din of battle. If the informal leader of the hodgepodge force, one Major Rouge, couldn't be heard conventionally, the comms and radios carried his order across the entirety of the mixed force.

"Advance!"

Reynolds didn't need to say anything. Rolling his shoulders, the Marine bolted out of the dugout with four men at his side, the fireteam sized unit barreling at the enemy army in a rapid sprint. For several seconds there was no reaction from the White Fang lines, and he could see a handful of heads focused on his tiny assault with what looked like incredulity. He briefly wondered if they were making an awful mistake, until he heard a rising growl of diesel engines behind him.

"Cover!" he shouted, he and the four men diving towards hunks of metal scattered around the small no man's land while gunfire started to ring out. He slammed his back into a chunk of plating, switching his head around back the way he came.

Engines surging in a deafening roar, the ten Russian tanks rolled over the trenches directly into the fray, all weapons booming into the foe's lines. Machine guns ripped across any foolishly exposed hostile, and a few who weren't; thinner metal chunks and soft rock didn't slow down the high powered munitions enough to matter, and nothing on the field could withstand a direct shot of the main cannon. Reynolds saw a couple missiles streak out to impact on the front and sides, the exploding warheads failing to slow down the machines in any way.

Right behind the tanks, the trenches boiled out men and women; Rangers and Atlesians climbed out of the defenses to charge, stumbling for purchase on the uneven grass before picking up speed. More and more followed them out, a tide of white and green chasing the Russian armor with battlecries on their lips. The White Fang's gunfire was met by their own, the leading edges of the ranks unloading at the enemy force. Nearly four hundred voices bellowed in unison, the combined shouts almost drowning out the unbelievably loud engines.

Pushing himself up, Reynolds waited until a T90 rumbled past his cover to dart out, M4 raised to shoot. The other Marines were at his back, weapons chattering in controlled bursts. Panicked return fire made him lead SG-3 behind the machine belching acrid smoke, picking off targets through the hazy sheen. One of his Marines wasn't fast enough however; a lucky bullet slammed into Corporal Thomas' leg, bringing him down in a shout of pain. Before Reynolds could help him, a burst tore across his throat.

Gritting his teeth, Reynolds had to force back the impulse to spray wildly at the White Fang. Instead he kept aligning his sights on one foe after another, crisply shooting at the numerous hostiles ducking in and out of cover. Their return fire was picking up however, with most of it focused on the tanks, although a few shooters were wising up to the machines' invulnerability. Gunfire switched from the T90s to the infantry behind them, relying on weight of numbers to score hits.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the troops start dropping one after another. Atlesian, Ranger, it made no difference when they fell. But whatever losses the combined force suffered weren't slowing them down.

Reynolds furiously gestured at the closest troops bearing down on them, but many already had the same idea as him. Ad hoc teams were clumping behind the noisy engines in groups of six or seven, hunching down under the safety of the mobile armor. No sooner did they reach their new spots were they sticking themselves out along the sides, getting a few shots off before retreating to safety. Chattering pops from M16s competed with the higher pitched whine of Atlas pulse rifles, the former shedding brass shells as opposed to the caseless firearms. All the while, the tank rumbled forward as mobile cover.

"Keep pushing!" the Colonel shouted over the deafening noise, unsure of anyone could hear him over the hellish cacophony.

He had only seconds to react. Detecting a darkening shadow overhead, Reynolds threw himself onto the ground as fast as he could move, feeling the air roil with some vast object swishing by altogether too closely. Stomps pounded the ground like miniature quakes, reaching a crescendo seemingly right on top of him. Just as he heard the bellowing roar of an enraged beast, there was a high pitched squeal of crumpling metal which was quickly cut off. All around him gusts of powerful wind whooshed past like a storm, even accompanied by a thunderclap of something massive striking the ground. Taking a quick breath, he rolled over to face the sky.

 _Oh_ , he thought mutedly. How Reynolds missed the forty meter tall elephantine Grimm, what the briefing named a Goliath, he would never know.

The massive creature towered over the humans, with SG-3 almost right by its stomping feet. As he watched the tusked monster coolly tracked its target until it smashed into the ground in the middle of the White Fang lines, the unlucky T90 landing upside down with a tremendous crash. Mere seconds later a poorly contained explosion joined the crunching metal as its munitions detonated. In response the Goliath raised its long truck to roar in triumph; even past his plugs the Marine clutched his ears to block the noise, to no avail.

He wasn't sure what motivated him to do it, but the Colonel retaliated. Switching his hand, he looped a finger around his M203's trigger and fired, launching a 40mm grenade right into the Goliath's face. There was a crisp boom against the monster's cheek, right beneath its tusk. And that was all he accomplished. The unflinching Grimm lowered its enormous head to glare at the quivering humans, who were petrified under its beady gaze. No amount of gunfire flying past could break the hold this beast had over them.

That was until a fresh explosion slammed between its eyes, causing the Goliath to recoil. The entire monster reared back on its hind legs, Reynolds' clue to get up and sprint away. SG-3 and the couple troops formerly hiding behind the tank had the same premonition, running in the only direction they could; right at the White Fang.

Ignoring the sight of the T90s swiveling their turrets, he felt the air buffer his back when the remaining tanks fired into the Goliath. The combined blasts acted as an extra push for his charge, launching him over a long hunk of steel in an ungainly flail of a running sprint. His expression showed it all, scrunched up yet with his eyes held wide open. Reynolds would've cried out, except he was fresh out of breath from his newest near death experience. And because he crashed into a wide eyed White Fang trooper.

He hit his unlucky victim with the force of an explosion propelled Marine, bringing them to the ground in a pile of tangled limbs. Drawing back from the cursing woman, Reynolds delivered a punch to the faunus on pure instinct, grappling his M4 to jerk upwards once she dropped. Gritting his teeth, he quickly reloaded when his weapon clicked empty, struggling to get back on his feet over the weakly struggling trooper. The ground underneath him shaking uncontrollably wasn't helping matters, although it cleared up quickly. In exchange however a whoosh of foul tasting ash swam over the barricades, making him cough raggedly from the stuff.

Peripherally aware of fresh gunfire joining his own, the Colonel faintly recognized more soldiers made it to the enemy positions and were engaging in close quarters. Stumbling for a second, he darted ahead while firing in bursts, watching the White Fang troopers start to pull back. A hand grabbing his sleeve almost earned the white armored soldier a bullet, though he was fortunate Reynolds noticed a loud object rumbling up behind him.

If the faunus hoped the impromptu cover would stop the otherworldly vehicles, they were sorely mistaken. The T90 simply rolled over the metal cover, the bulky treads grinding down the metal before its armored weight crushed them underneath. Ever moving, the nine tanks leveled out and realigned their sights. The one closest to the Marine didn't try shooting its main gun this close, relying on its machine gun to scythe down enemies.

Two bursts of yellow lights hit a short distance away from the White Fang, each one stitching the ground along their flanks. New firestorms rose up from the impact points, cutting off any options for the dwindling army to maneuver. Their Grimm allies were only just now recovering from the bizarre event, the endless reinforcements no longer arriving. In front of the faunus was an advancing force, hodgepodge in composition yet lethal all the same. In the end, there was only one option left.

Flinging a grenade into a clump of enemies, Reynolds moved his sights to the remaining foes ahead. With his blood pumping and gunfire of every type filling the air, he needed several seconds to process what he saw.

"They're falling back." he mumbled; the sounds of battle might as well have muted him. Turning his head, he shouted at the top of his lungs. "They're running!"

Without waiting for backup, Reynolds drew on his reserves of strength to sprint at the retreating White Fang, M4 up and firing. He saw some units were acting disciplined, a few men firing to cover others moving to better positions, but the majority weren't so composed. Those he saw were turning to flee, terror bleeding through these men's body language. The Colonel almost tripped when his foot caught on something, realizing it was a discarded rifle.

Hostile gunfire was visibly tapering off; Reynolds didn't know whether it was because their cohesion was breaking or if they were out of ammo, but he could say he didn't care. Shooting a fleeing trooper, he made a running jump over a small barricade and launched another rifle grenade at some enemies. Fresh gunfire tore into another group right beside them, a Ranger's M240 chattering while an Atlesian squad flanked the pinned force. To the Marine's other side he could see a reverse, where several white armored soldiers poured fire into a faunus squad, so to let a pair of green clad men load and aim a recoilless rifle, firing an explosive right in the center of a cluster.

When he detected a fresh humming sound over the gunfire and screams, Reynolds glanced up, and felt his panting breath get stolen away.

The Prometheus was turning, adjusting its heading so the prow was facing the majority of the Grimm horde. At its side floated the winglike masses of Atlas carriers, the pair of enormous flying vessels moving to flank the alien starship. Although the two guardians were easily a third larger than the diminutive Earth ship, the way they prowled to opposite sides made it clear they were escorts, guarding their new ally from anything that wished them harm.

00000

On the bridge, Pendergast observed it all. Red Three and Red Four moved to escort the Prometheus, providing unneeded cover so to start their own advance. Not far away, Red Two was moving overhead of the counter-attacking force, its few escorts left rushing towards the mixed army overrunning the enemy. Switching his gaze, he saw the ad hoc Vale relief force start to arrive over the huntsmen, the dozens of airships dropping their cargo right into battle against the recovering Grimm.

He clicked the radio, connecting him to the Atlas comm net. When he spoke, he addressed their crews and his alike.

"All ahead full."

00000

Leaping out from her Bullhead, Winter enjoyed the couple seconds of free fall while she plummeted, landing sword first on the back of a Beowolf to break her fall. A cloud of ash bloomed around the woman, rising from the Grimm's remains with her rapier held to her exacting stance. Winter's ad hoc companions hit the ground around her with far less dignity than her, quickly forming a rough square with their own weapons raised.

Taiyang was the first to react, bringing the axe down on a snarling Ursa. Meanwhile Kali and Ghira moved in perfect sync, the woman slashing across a Beowolf's chest to allow the man to plunge fist first into the beast, punching right through its thick hide.

"I love this place!" the blonde man yelled enthusiastically, throwing his axe into another Beowolf where it stuck, the beast roaring. His response was to vault over the flailing Grimm, snatching the axe handle and tearing it across the monster's torso. Ghira only laughed as he locked fists with a smaller Berigel, meeting its throaty snarls with his own hearty chuckles. The Grimm didn't notice Kali until she landed on its shoulders, sticking her pistol into its eye socket and pulling the trigger.

Winter didn't reply to their banter, carving up two Ursai in quick succession before lancing a King Taijitu between its eyes. She did notice one of the gunships swooping overheard, the twin engines roaring as it gently swayed. The back hatch was lowered, revealing Washington and SG-9 arrayed in the cabin; she then discovered the overworked Major had found the mounted turret, and he was grinning behind the triggers. Bright lasers stitched across any Grimm in sight, while his team unloaded their M4s into the horde. Even though the monsters were unexpectedly sluggish all of a sudden, few shots failed to hit a target.

All around Winter, more fighters and soldiers entered the fray, jumping from the transports right into the diminishing horde. She could hear a ragged cheer rising from the Beacon students so close, the many huntsmen emboldened by the reinforcements. Gritting her teeth, she began pushing towards the gathered fighters with single minded determination. Weiss was in there somewhere, and Winter wasn't going to rest until she found her sister. No amount of distractions, whether from yelling huntsmen or soldiers requesting orders, was stopping her. The sole thing to break her concentration was a whining blast of a laser cannon firing, making her look up.

Sedately cruising across the sky, the black armored Prometheus and two gleaming Atlas airships were advancing on the forest edge, raining destruction down upon the thinning Grimm. Laser batteries from the Atlas ships fired every few seconds, annihilating scores of beasts with every shot, while continuous streams of yellow railgun fire reaped a terrible toll upon those left standing.

Far behind the ships five black shapes raced skywards, forming a pentagon of craft that banked towards the battle. Their high pitched booms were the calling card of F302s, screaming overtop the warships to close in on the retreating army. Railgun fire flew from the fighters, hitting the edge of the forest where the White Fang were trying to flee. Fires sprang up from the incinerated foliage, a billowing inferno which cut off their escape route. Winter was pleased at their chosen move; now the faunus had only two options. Fight to the death, or surrender.

"Excellent." she grinned, detecting a boarbatusk running towards her. She took off in a run towards the Beacon force, killing the Grimm without slowing down.

00000

Crescent Rose missed yet again.

Its owner felt like crying out when she failed to land a blow; two shields and two swords flanked the enemy after several attempts, keeping her locked in place instead of dancing around, if only for a couple seconds. Which should've been enough for the scythe to hit the target with a downwards slice, yet the foe jerked past the paired shields with fire lashing against their surfaces, evading the strike with contemptible ease. Since the weapon's owner put so much strength into the attack, she ended up flipping head over heels to hit the dirt face first. Before she darted away, her foe delivered a swift kick into her midsection.

Bouncing once as she struggled to get back on her feet, Ruby had to dig her scythe's blade into the dirt to slow herself down, skimming to a halt. Less than a second after her momentum bled away she stumbled, coughing horribly thanks to her overtaxed lungs. The coppery taste on her tongue was disregarded, and a wipe of her forearm took care of the fluid leaking into her eyes. She didn't look at her sleeve, deciding she didn't need to know if it were sweat or blood staining her clothes. Now wasn't the time to get worried over little stuff.

As she tried to stand up fully again, the second fighter landed beside her to crumple, although they recovered much faster than she did. Flopping her head, the panting girl saw a bronze tinted shield get put forward, visibly quivering with its owner's jarring heaves. It took her several long seconds to return to her old stance, shield in front and a javelin held at her side.

"Hey Pyrrha." she greeted weakly.

"Ha, hey Ruby." the redhead answered slowly, wincing as she flexed the hand clutching Miló.

"You doing okay?" Ruby asked, scrunching up her expression when she yanked Crescent Rose from the ground.

"Not so well." she repositioned her feet, cringing at something hurting. Much like her. "To tell the truth, this has got to be the single hardest fight of my entire life."

Ruby tapped her blade to knock the dirt off, sighing weakly. "Yeah, mine too."

The third fighter ended up by the girls, this one coming to a stop at the other side of the red huntress. Unlike them however he unintentionally backflipped before landing on his stomach, his sword and shield staying in his white knuckled grip. When he halted, the young man groaned as he pushed himself off the dirt, using a leg to steady himself. Ruby waited until he was upright once more to speak, though she could see his status quite well.

"Doing okay Jaune?" she checked anyway, watching him clap his torso plate to knock the dirt off. Much like them, he was fighting down a cringe from doing something so easy.

The blond shuddered when he brought his weapons up, although clearly not from pain. "I'm distinctly aggrieved."

"Um, why?" she raised a brow, racking her weapon's bolt and finding the chamber empty.

"Three on one odds Ruby, three on one." he growled, wincing at a patch of seared flesh on his exposed arm. "We outnumber her three to one, this should not be this hard."

"It's usually not."

All three snapped forward, tensing at the enemy lazily striding towards them. Cinder was smiling dangerously at the trio, one eye burning with a hazy orange light as fires rippled over her forearms. Unlike the trifecta of fighters, she had a couple new bruises to show for their efforts.

"But I've felt like taking it easy on you kids, its been awhile since I've been able to enjoy a decent fight." she explained in a mocking tone, pausing to bring her fists up. New flames sprouted from her hands, the tint shifting from orange to yellow.

"You know you can't win." Pyrrha called out, putting her shield forward. Both Jaune and Ruby nodded, although the latter's eyes never left the woman's nonchalant expression.

"So your side brought an army against a single White Fang faction and a small horde, so what?" Uncaring of the fires, Cinder brought her fist up to crack her neck. "If this is the best you can do I'll only need a little more time to destroy this place. This is a setback, nothing more."

Ruby growled, just loud enough for Jaune and Pyrrha to take their eyes off Cinder for a second. The red toned girl didn't care about the uncertain looks they sported however, all that mattered was the foe in front of them. Apologizing would come later. In the meantime, she had to win this fight, or else nothing any of them did today would matter. There was simply no other possibility.

Ejecting the empty magazine, she felt a wince coming on when she grabbed her last full replacement. Within the small case she loaded were five rounds; once those were gone, her firepower would vanish entirely. For a moment she wondered why Cinder made no move to stop her, though she assumed overconfidence was her reason. Justified overconfidence rather, she sourly corrected.

When she took up her stance, Ruby's friends tensed up alongside her, weapons held at the ready. In response to their willingness to fight, Cinder only grinned.

"Confident aren't you?" she taunted with no trace of irony. "I gave all of you an out, and you-GAH!"

When Cinder suddenly recoiled Ruby almost shot her right there. The red toned girl braced herself for the inevitable attack, but as she processed the sight Ruby began to understand this was something else. Clutching her arm, the woman shrank back with a drawn out hiss, her expression scrunched up in evident pain. The fires she so casually wielded were snuffed out instantly.

"Guys?" Jaune's alarmed voice finally broke her attention, Ruby sharply glancing at the blond. She was about to ask what the problem was, but one look around answered that question.

The entire time they fought, the Grimm ignored their tiny group. Every monster which came too close to the duel bypassed them or changed course, giving the four a wide berth to do battle. No matter the type, not one attempted to interfere. Ruby didn't understand the Grimm's odd behavior, but she assumed Cinder was the reason for this, however she did it. Whatever she had was certainly the same thing keeping the White Fang safe from their bestial allies.

Now all of a sudden, the various Grimm were falling over. Not dead that she could see, but the various beasts acted like they were whacked upside the head, many falling over to weakly jerk their limbs. Sweeping her head around, Ruby's mouth opened a little in raw confusion; her line of sight was limited, but every Grimm she could see was affected by the exact same event. Even if she couldn't see far however, she could quite clearly hear the endless roaring and snarls of this vast horde being abruptly cut off, almost instantaneously.

"What, what's going on?" Pyrrha voiced, flipping her head back in forth in the same way as the girl beside her.

"I don't understand." Jaune said in the same tone.

Ruby didn't reply. Her silver eyes were fixated on the sight of Cinder's shuddering form, only now she didn't have her vile hatred from earlier. The reason was because of the woman's arm: as she watched in utter astonishment, black tar like material oozed down her forearm, dripping off to patter on the soil. It dribbled like especially thick liquid, either sliding along her limb or leaking out from between her clamped fingers. When the stuff touched the dirt it visibly disintegrated into a short lived cloud of ash. All the while, the woman had her head down as she heaved for breath.

When her head finally lifted, awed surprised was written all over Cinder's expression. Returning upright, she gawked at the limb held apart from her, turning it over to examine the pink flesh. The observers didn't understand why she seemed so amazed by the simple sight. A hitched breath left the woman, her exposed arm curling inward to hover over her rising smile. Slowly reaching out to splay her hand, she acted as if it were the most amazing thing she'd ever seen.

"I don't believe it. Its... its gone." she shook her head, peering away from her forearm. "This means, she's gone. Dead, not here anymore, doesn't matter." she held a hand over her agape mouth, stopping a delirious chuckle regardless of the bizarre looks she received. "I'm free."

Cinder swiveled her head to the trio, still appearing happy while her fist clenched. The glint in her eyes shifted dangerously as she smiled.

"This means I don't have to hold back anymore."

The wind suddenly picked up, flowing towards the woman. Despite her scarf whipping past her face, Ruby brushed it aside and took aim, but now her hands were starting to shake uncontrollably. Her friends showed wrinkled expressions at the strange breeze, which quickly morphed to slacked jawed looks.

Arms held aloft, Cinder rose from the ground with no visible means of propulsion, still grinning dangerously at the trio. The fires on her arms reigniting into blazing infernos, joined by streams of liquid power sprouting from her eyes. Hanging several meters above the ground, the woman threw her arms skyward; the blazing fires shot up into open air, creating a tower of rippling flame. Barely audible over the crackling air was a restrained laugh, of a longtime prisoner finally set free. The atmosphere around the small gathering was supercharged with unseen power, making hairs stand on end.

Ruby had trouble relocating her voice, and needed a couple tries to be heard over the display. "Guys?"

"Yeah?" Pyrrha responded for them both, eyes wide at the display.

"Remember on the ride in, when I told you about the Maiden thing?" the red toned girl had to gulp before she could continue. "This is what I was talking about."

Jaune slowly turned his head, his blue eyes roaming over the girls while his sword quivered. "We're screwed, aren't we?"

"I think so." Ruby answered hollowly.

If Cinder's was fast before, she was a little more than a blur now. In the time it took for Ruby to blink, the woman in the red dress was right in front of them, flames streaming behind her rapid form. Driving a fist downwards in the center of the trio, she created a thunderclap of concussive force from a single punch, the sheer power blasting a crater in the soil. All around it however the backwash acted like a tiny bomb, send all three tumbling away.

Jaune was her first target; while he was still flying through the air, Cinder reached him in under a second to deliver a punch to his chest, the rippling flames licking over him as he was knocked aside. Pyrrha was next, a backhanded swipe making a whip of flames that slapped her out of sight. Once both her companions were dealt with, Cinder turned her attention to the red toned girl, still trying to right herself when she landed.

A quick gunshot raced from Ruby's scythe, but she jerked out of the way faster than she could track. Cinder was still grinning as she marched towards her, eyes blazing as she cracked her flaming knuckles. Blinking away, the red toned girl reappeared above her to shoot again, only for her to evade the bullet once more. In response she sent another lash of fire at her, which likewise cleanly missed.

Landing hard on her feet a short distance away, she realized Cinder was toying with her. As much as she hated the feeling of helplessness, Ruby knew was way out of her league here, there was simply no way she could defeat her alone. She needed help, fast. In the corner of her vision, her heart welled when she saw a lot of available help so close to her position. Unfortunately for the red huntress, her enemy saw the girl's intention clear as day.

Ruby barely engaged her semblance in time, blinking out of the way of Cinder's fist with only millimeters of clearance. Popping in a dozen meters away, she was quite surprised to find the woman right on top her so quickly, both of her burning fists flung downwards for a smash. She had a tiny bit of good fortune at Cinder misjudging her angle, so the twin blows would only catch her side rather than hit the center of her torso. It was a small consolation however, since she still took most of the power of the strike.

An explosive gasp blowing past her lips, Ruby felt most of her ribs cracking as she was flung away. Crescent Rose fell from her limp fingers to listlessly tumble onto the ground, bouncing twice before it fell over, much like its owner. She tumbled repeatedly until she hit a chunk of metal, one last pained wheeze escaping her a before she came to a complete stop.

Rolling onto her back, Ruby's empty eyes stared at the overcast sky, watching an F302 race overhead without bothering to track it. Every breath she took was slow and hesitant, the need for air warring with the spikes of refined agony stitching through her torso at each swell of her chest. She was only peripherally aware of a line of blood leaking from the corner of her mouth. Upon noticing movement in her vision's edge, she didn't so much move her head as let gravity tilt her sideways. It was strange to view the world when the ground was up and down, and objects seemed to be bolted onto walls.

Such as Cinder, marching towards her with that grin still on her features.

"Nice try kid." she called out, holding her arms out to let the fires crawl up her arms. The woman's sight was focused solely on Ruby, and not the surroundings she purposely led her towards.

Fresh gunfire ripped through the air from behind Ruby, a painfully loud chatter of uneven shooting from an altogether too close distance. Cinder's march halted mid step, the woman recoiling as she threw her arms up to protect herself. The red toned girl watched her get forced back under the deluge of firepower, even as someone grabbed her arm to tug. Despite the wash of fresh pain, she only whimpered at the strong hand dragging her from the fight, while a black weapon above her was raised to shoot.

Atlas soldiers and men in green camouflage swiftly surrounded the woman, a dozen men pouring gunfire onto the immobilized target. Ruby noted they looked so much like the guards back on Earth, but they carried themselves differently from those wary men. She also noted they and the Atlas soldiers were cooperating with near flawless synergy, working together to flank and engage the burning woman. To her quiet amazement, the sheer weight of their fire they were putting out would be enough to kill even larger Grimm breeds.

Yet Cinder wasn't dropping. Far from it; with a tremendous scream she flung her arms up, creating an inferno which quickly engulfed her location, forming a half sphere of roiling fire and sparking electricity. The sudden display didn't halt the soldiers, but she could see their new leeriness at the otherworldly sight. She knew it was bad when her nameless savior set her down to grab a long tube from his back, an AT-4 if she remembered right, and took aim.

The dome suddenly blasted outwards, looking so much like a bomb going off. A wave of fire raced out, immolating the closest soldiers before they could scream. The kinetic energy was great enough to send the rest flying away, some screaming, some not. If Ruby was upright, she too would've been swatted off her feet, just like her rescuer; the man was impacted while he took aim, the missile launching just as he was thrown back. Feeling the backwash caress her shaking form, she watched the projectile fly into the air and wobble, exploding harmlessly far away from any target.

Ruby was hurting, seemingly from every spot from her body. Legs, arms, chest, senses, pain was overloading her mind so much she could barely think. But despite this, she had to creak her neck to look, mouth agape in a whimper as she struggled to sit upright. Breath coming out in rapid heaves, she managed to rise far enough to peer at the short lived fight.

Cinder slowly rose from a circle of semi-molten glass, the glowing patch several meters in diameter cracking even as she watched. In spite of the extreme heat however, the woman in the red dress appeared unaffected, nothing on her looking singed. But as Ruby looked closer, she realized she wasn't untouched either; fresh bruises coated her arms and sternum, her hair was a tousled mess, and her outfit showed a vast number of tears on the fabric. More importantly, she was panting for breath as she took one measured step after another.

"Just... for that..." Cinder tried to threaten, only to break out coughing. Her entire form shook with the violence of her ragged gasping.

Flicking her eyes away, Ruby needed seconds to relocate her weapon lying on its side just a few meters away. Moving to the side sent slivers of raw agony coursing through her system, interrupting her already taxed breathing. But she wasn't going to stop; gritting her teeth, she flopped to her side and began to crawl, dragging herself across the torn up dirt towards Crescent Rose. Her eyes didn't leave the scythe, everything in her mind boiling away so to focus exclusively on getting to her goal.

Cinder reached the end of the glass circle and heaved, hands on her thighs as she steadied herself. Unlike the red huntress however, she had strength remaining to glance up, her now weakly blazing eyes landing on her foe.

"If I... hadn't played around... for so long..." she stopped to cough, plodding towards the crawling girl. "If this... happened twenty minutes ago... ah screw it."

Scrunching up her features, the woman forced herself into an uneven gait, quickly eating up the distance between them. At her current pace, she would catch the girl before she got to her weapon.

Ruby was a meter from her goal when Cinder reached her, delivering a kick to her midsection to roll her over. Gasping, she tried to draw in breath when her foot stepped on her chest, the woman slowly pressing down. "This time brat, you're not walking away."

The girl flicked her head to the side, a heartbeat before a bronze javelin wrapped around Cinder's throat. Her eyes went wide as she shot her hands up, grasping at the weapon now hugging tightly against her throat. A powerful yank drew her off Ruby, staggering with the weight on her back. On her end Pyrrha didn't let up the pressure, baring her teeth as she pulled as tight as she possibly could. Even as the woman clawed at her arms to leave bloody gashes, she kept her weapon in place by sheer desperation.

Occupied by the redhead choking her, Cinder didn't register a scuffed up Jaune charging at her until it was too late. She tried dodging to the side, but all she succeeded in doing change where his sword's thrust made contact; the woman gasped when Crocea Mors plunged into her side, the blade scraping along her ribs as opposed to her solar plexus. For good measure the blond used his shield to bash her in the chest, keeping a hastily repositioned hand from lashing back at him.

With a snarl Cinder flung herself forward, yanking Pyrrha overhead right onto Jaune. When the pressure on her neck finally slackened, she mustered fire to her palms, throwing both of her blazing hands at the pair, the power enough to knock both of them back. Teeth gritted, she grabbed the silver blade to yank it out, letting only a small gasp escape her when the sword was torn from her chest. The wound leaked blood freely, but she didn't seem to care at the moment.

The two fighters were already recovering, but in the frantic melee their weapons left their grips. Cinder caught Miló on her toes and flicked it up, catching it in mid air as she bore down on the blond first. Jaune raised his shield, but instead of obliging him she brought her foot down on his leg, audibly crushing the bones underfoot. He had just started to scream when she threw a punch at his head, knocking him out immediately.

Pyrrha was almost back on her feet, her own shield raised when a fist landed on the plate; the power blew her back, sending the barrier sprawling away. It was a perfect opportunity for Cinder to bring the black tip of the javelin onto the redhead. Weakened by a morning of battle, her Aura couldn't stop the weapon from plunging through her shoulder. A ragged gasp of a scream left her when she was pinned to the ground, flailing in a futile attempt to dislodge her own javelin.

Cinder drew back carefully, gathering a second wind to her exhausted form. She peered at the pair she just defeated, glaring at the unconscious man and the crippled woman, and clenched her fist. New fires swirled around her hand, although they were noticeably slower than before. The redhead could see the woman's intentions, and quickly dropped her shield to grab something from her belt in spite of a gasp of pain. In one smooth motion she tossed a tiny object underhand right at the recovering foe, Cinder tracking the item when it fell at her feet. The woman gave the whitish grey brick a strange look as Pyrrha dragged the shield over herself.

The half kilogram of C4 went up in a concussive explosion, the resulting fires washing over all three combatants. Of its intended victim, Cinder was blown back a dozen meters to land in a tangle of limbs, flopping once before she went still.

Ruby watched the encounter helplessly, barely getting onto her hands and knees before the explosive pushed her over yet again. Coughing spastically, the red toned girl creaked over to wearily glance at her friends, passing over her precious weapon in arms reach. Soot and debris covered both shields in her view, neither moving as far as she could see. Her breath caught, icy shock settling over her battered system.

"No, _no_." she whispered, her uneven gasps picking up as she desperately searched for any sign of life. But she saw nothing.

Over the gunfire, the roars, and the explosions, Ruby heard a wheezing rasp of breath, but it wasn't coming from the friends she already lost once. Craning her neck around, her silver eyes locked onto Cinder's fallen body, the woman throwing an arm up as she coughed. The bomb went off right below her, but the woman still clung to life no matter her wounds. Watching her struggle, Ruby's breathing evened out.

The woman let out a whimpering cry when she rolled onto her stomach, features scrunched up from the sheer amount of pain she was in. Clenching her fists, she pushed her face off the dirt in a groan of effort, trying to get air into her needle filled lungs. Her torn up dress was in a sorry state, mirroring her own condition. Particularly her legs; she knew without looking her skin was lacerated, the seared and cracked flesh aching terribly alongside her lancing shins. Squeezing her eyes shut to concentrate, she focused solely on getting onto her hands and knees.

"Damnit..." she wheezed, instantly regretting the spike of pain from her throat to her chest.

Though it took a vast amount of effort, Cinder succeeded in resting her lower half onto her aching knees, and splaying her hands on the dirt was enough to keep her upper half up. She could only guess at how long it took, but she succeeded. Her reward was a hard object poking at the back of her neck; though she was still breathing heavily, she had strength remaining to creak her head over, just enough to see the cause.

Ruby was behind her, her entire body shaking as she aimed the barrel of Crescent Rose at Cinder's head.

Another person might have felt terror at having a gun to their head, especially when the girl laid a quivering hand on the bolt and methodically racked it, popping out a spent casing and likely putting a fresh bullet in the chamber. Other people would've reacted with shock, surprised at the very least to find their life in somebody's hands. But not Cinder Fall. The woman stared into the eyes of the red huntress, showing only weary defiance.

"So, this is it." she said slowly, watching the girl's features twist into a snarl. "You really think you can pull that trigger?"

"Y-yeah." Ruby answered, the barrel accidentally bumping the woman once again. She was barely able to stand, but she had the strength to keep the rifle in place, for now anyway.

Cinder smirked, her grin coming out closer to a grimace. "You do this, and you'll be just like me."

At the moment of truth, Ruby hesitated. Her curled snarl softened, the grip on her weapon loosened ever so slightly. Her widening eyes roamed over herself, taking in the sight with mounting horror. Huntsmen were supposed to be guardians of the people, protecting them from monsters. Yet here she was, standing over a defeated enemy with a gun to their head. All it would take is a twitch of her finger, and she would take the life of a sentient being. A killer.

She glanced away, features clouding over. Long buried guilt rose to the surface, memories of her greatest sin returning to the forefront of her thoughts. How many times had she reflected on that fateful day, desperately searching for any way she could've changed its outcome? How many times had she woken up in a cold sweat, to be comforted by her friends and family over a mistake beyond her control? Ruby was no murderer.

But as she faced her demons, she remembered. Ruby could recall the night which tore her world asunder; the fires, the screams, the laughter of the White Fang terrorists, and the snarls of the panic fueled Grimm all around her. Finding Weiss fighting for her life. Saving Blake from being torn apart. Getting an unconscious Yang to safety before she bled to death. Narrowly rescuing Ozpin from the hungry fires. Stumbling across the trail of bodies left behind like discarded trash. Watching a monster from legend fly off into the night, baying for the blood of the innocent and guilty alike. Above all, she remembered who caused that terrible event.

"Penny, Amber, Sun, Coco, Smith." she whispered under her breath, slowly returning her gaze to her enemy.

Cinder Fall was right in front of her. The woman was responsible for everything: the Dust robbery which inadvertently got her into Beacon, the bolder White Fang, the first battle, amassing an army of monsters and beasts, the all out struggle for the fate of Beacon, and now this. Her friends laid on the dirt a short distance away, stolen from her for a second time. The devastation, the misfortune, it all was Cinder's fault. She was to blame for everything.

An uncontrollable tremble worked its way through her body. Ruby didn't fight it, not anymore. Curling her lips back into a snarl, she hit the requisite lever to pop the scythe blade out, and with the last of her strength she swung the blade around the woman's head to tug against her throat. Cinder tried shying away from the nicked blade digging into her flesh, but she only pulled back tighter so she wouldn't escape.

Her blazing eyes locked onto Ruby's silver ones, for a moment showing very real fear. The girl merely leaned in a little, while her finger curled over the trigger.

"This?" Ruby all but spat, sucking in one last breath. "This is for everyone you've ever hurt, _you bitch_."

She pulled the trigger, launching the scythe back in a wide sweep.

She hung the weapon high, slowly lowering it when Cinder dropped for the last time. Her panting breath was picking up at an increasing pace, the rage sustaining her fading away as the full magnitude of her actions sunk in. Without meaning to, she let go of the red splattered weapon, clinking when her beloved scythe fell over. She couldn't stand to look at the blade anymore, the hot fluid that splashed against her chest and jaw, not even the scarf she proudly wore for as long as she could remember. The red she was named for made her want to vomit.

Her wobbling legs gave out, bringing Ruby to her knees before her victim. The righteous fury which drove her fled away, leaving behind an overwhelming wave of regret. Her justifications rang hollow now, providing no relief from her disgusted revulsion. Slowly peering at her hands, she sputtered in horror at the blood flecking her palms, drying in place into her skin. She knew it would never wash off, no matter how the rest of her life turned out. The blood on her hands would remain there until she died.

Where was the Huntsmen code now, when she needed it the most? Where was the escape from the guilt? In her moment of weakness she let her rage claim her, and now she was forever tainted. She had let herself become the very thing she swore to stop. What was left for her now?

But as occupied as Ruby was, she wasn't blind. Flickering movement caused her to glance up, and for a moment her turmoil was set aside.

Watching with bated breath, she observed a purplish mist rise from Cinder to float above her, like it was fleeing from a sinking ship. The bizarre stuff flowed out from her into a human sized mass of translucent smoke, seeming to sink into itself while the mist swirled. Ruby briefly wondered if she were seeing things, but she dismissed the thought; her aching body was all too real, which meant this was as well. Gasping as she staggered back onto her feet, she made a move to back away from this unknown event. But the second she took a step, the cloud twitched. The flow came to a halt, and a noticeable tremble rippled over the incoherent surface.

Ruby gulped. "Uh oh."

The mist shot forward before she could move a muscle. She was frozen in place when the mist swam over her, opening her mouth to scream. New pain tore through her battered form, reaching heights of agony she could barely imagine. She screamed and screamed, unaware of her body floating several centimeters above the ground, or her eyes shining with powerful silvery light.

When the last of the mist sank into Ruby Rose, there was a thunderclap of raw power, and everything went dark.


	36. End of an Era

**A/N: Stargate belongs to MGM, RWBY to Rooster Teeth, there. Now, let's wrap things up.**

00000

 _Lights, indistinct..._

 _"...over here, what hap..."_

 _"...oh my god..."_

 _"... ill breathing!..."_

 _Jostling... going somewhere..._

 _"...board, she'll be safe there. Don't ar..."_

 _Harsh lights... it hurts so much..._

 _Cold..._

 _"...diac arrest, grab the defib! One one thousand, two one thousand..."_

 _Thump. Numbness._

 _"...steady. Damn that was..."_

 _Light, then dark._

 _"... ternal bleeding... somethings tearing her apart ins..."_

 _"...ease Thor, save my sister..."_

 _Vertigo. A sharp crack of pain, but it faded quickly. The darkness seemed thinner now._

 _She feels... better. The pain is gone now. Dizzy, but it doesn't last long._

 _"...ter is alright, she just needs... yes you two can wait here..."_

 _Weights on her arms. Heavy, uneven, comforting. They would protect her. She didn't know how or why, but she knew they would._

 _Thanks to them, she could rest._

00000

Lids creaked open, exposing sore orbs to the harsh light above. They blinked, trying to flee from the sudden onslaught of painful input. Squeezing back shut for a moment, the will behind the two silver eyes worked on getting her sluggish mind to function, all while trying to get a handle on the light. It was difficult though, her eyes felt like they were brushing up against sandpaper.

Adjusting to the glaring lights took what felt like hours, though it probably just took more than a minute or two. Telling time seemed unreasonably difficult all of a sudden. The soreness however was something she could process immediately, despite a corner of her mind telling her something was missing. She vaguely recalled fighting, nearly losing the fight now that she could think more clearly. So why was she only sore?

Eventually the hazy shapes lost their amorphous quality to take on sharp relief, details coming into focus. The gears inside the girl's head churned, slowly making sense of the myriad input she took in. With the return of sight came sounds, the hazy background hum turning into recognizable noises. Though she was becoming aware not everything was entirely familiar. There were strange things she was hearing that she wasn't able to identify; beeping machines, intelligible voices, and a strange humming noise from a source she couldn't pinpoint.

When she moved a stiff arm, the weight settled there shifted with a very familiar groan. Swiveling her vision to the source of the noise, she finally connected the dots. Gulping a lump down her dry throat, she croaked.

"Yang?"

A mass of blonde hair rose from the bedside, flopping out of the way to reveal a pair of sluggish lilac eyes shadowed by a bandage around her forehead. They immediately widened in surprise, which quickly morphed into unfettered relief.

"Ruby!" her sister exclaimed with only the barest hint of restraint, shooting out of a chair to bearhug the smaller girl. The small amount of breath the girl had was forced out by the pressure of her weight coming down, leaving as a gurgling cough when hard objects scraped on her sides. Nevertheless, she lifted her own hands to return the hug as best as she could.

When Yang grudgingly drew back, another groan came from her other side. One glance had Ruby's eyes widening for a second time. "Dad?"

Shaking his head as he sat up, Taiyang Xiao Long mustered a smile at his daughter. His short blond hair was a greasy mess and his work clothes were wrinkled, but he still made a visible effort of straightening himself out. With a welcome sigh, he laid a hand on her to give a reassuring squeeze.

"Morning Rubes." he said, expression flickering. Although it took a monumental effort, the red toned girl lifted her heavy arm towards him, causing her father to slide his hand into her grip. Both settled on the bed, comforting each other by their mere presence. "You had us worried for a bit. How're you feeling?"

"I'm..." Ruby glanced over herself; to her embarrassment she discovered she had only a hospital gown on, although a blanket was rolled up to her waist. "Um, fine?"

"Not hurting at all?" Yang butted in, leaning over her with concern etched on her features.

Frowning now, Ruby rechecked her body as she sat up. Other than some lingering aches and her sore eyes, she felt reasonably okay. There was no trace of the crippling wounds she received, feeling like she just had a strenuous workout instead of fighting for her life. She quite clearly remembered her injuries, from-

"Y-yeah, I'm alright. How long have I been out?" she asked rapidly, nodding with her answer.

Something flashed over Taiyang, but it passed quickly. "Two days. I'm glad you're doing okay."

"Y-yeah, me too. When did you get here?" she asked back, returning to her sister when she chuckled.

In the process, she realized something was odd about the small room they were in. Grey metal walls seemed to press down on the girl, along with the bed taking up a lot of the available space. A beeping machine was set into a wall, a rather bulky model she wasn't familiar with, and there was an IV stand set up by the edge of the bed. Her sister and father each had uncomfortable looking folding chairs to sit on, placed at the bed's flanks. This wasn't like any hospital she'd ever seen before.

In fact...

"Wait a sec, where are we?" she slowly questioned, turning to lay a frown on him.

Taiyang smiled sheepishly, rubbing his hands together. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but we're inside a spaceship Ruby. A Gods-blessed alien spaceship."

"The _Prometheus_." she murmured, blinking in astonishment. Her father nodded.

"Before you ask, its landed at Vale's airport. The Earthers were worried about security, so the VPD put a huge police cordon all around the perimeter." Yang explained, letting out a breath. "Gotta say, being here is really something else."

"Y-yeah, it is." she nodded quickly, eyes widened.

Her dad smirked, reaching up to tussle her hair despite her weakly slapping his hand. "Heard through the grapevine you two discovered all this stuff a week ago."

"Um..." Ruby gulped nervously. "A bunch of different people told me to keep quiet about this, and, well..." she glanced away peevishly, returning when he chuckled.

"Its okay, I get it. And in your defense, I'm sitting here and it still doesn't seem real." he said with a shrug.

"Right." Yang stood up from the bed, stretching her sore legs for a moment. "I'm gonna go get the others. Be back in a..." she trailed off, her smile fading at the sight of Ruby's staring. Her silver eyes were latched onto the blonde, making her sigh as she tried to plant a hand on her hip, only to give up when the hard surface scraped on her side.

Running from her fingertips to the midway point of her forearms, Yang's hands were encased by matching white casts. The thick casings enveloped her flesh entirely, layered gauze sealed by solidified material to keep them locked in place, unable to move. At the ends her fingers curled inwards as large paws, with her thumbs sticking as frozen nubs. The twin casts looked stiff and uncomfortable, and despite her attempts to hide it, the brawler grimaced at the attention.

"Your..." she wasn't able to say it, numbly tracking her crippled hands.

"I know." Yang sighed as she shifted her weight. "We were fighting this this really weird Grimm, when I took it down the thing sprayed this acid on me. This looks worse than what it really is." she explained lowly, forcing herself to look at her sister.

"But-" Ruby tried to press. Taiyang laying a hand on her arm put a stop to that, making the smaller girl switch to him.

"Its okay hon, really." he assured.

When he glanced up, Yang slumped as she let out a breath. "Right. Anyway, two minutes."

The blonde turned to power out of the room, clearing the small door and taking off. Ruby heard someone outside yelp, a couple somebody's in fact, sounding irate at the girl trekking through the ship. Taking a deep breath, she glanced worriedly to her father.

"I mean it, she'll be just fine." Taiyang insisted, giving her another squeeze. "Yang's helper is taking good care of her."

"Helper? But she..." Ruby stopped when he shook his head.

"Not just your friends. A special man gave her a hand." he explained. After a second he coughed into a fist. "Anyway, his names Faramir. I met him yesterday; he's a pale guy, looks a little shifty, but he's polite enough. He distracted the Grimm long enough for your sister to kill the thing, even though it crushed his torso in the process. He's fine if you're wondering." he quickly added, raising a hand to preempt her opening mouth.

"Really?" she went in place of her original question.

"Don't ask me how, but he is. Since he woke up the guys been busy using his semblance to heal people, including your sister." he explained further. "Well, least when he's not under heavy guard. A lot of people are nervous about him for some reason." he finished, sparing a glance to a wall.

Ruby nodded, a frown creasing her expression. "Did he heal me too?"

"Ah, no." Taiyang unexpectedly looked away, gulping. "You had, um, different help."

Before she could inquire further, Ruby's head snapped to the door. There was a loud commotion outside that was swiftly growing in volume, a babble of excited voices she recognized at once. Squirming further up the bed, a massive grin split her features when they came into view.

Yang was the first to stride into the room, stepping aside to let the others in. "Here she is."

Her waving casts first heralded Blake, clad in her favorite jacket and pants, although there were bandages on her neck and arms. "Hi Ruby."

Hot on her heels was Nora, almost skipping inside despite having a length of gauze wrapped around her forehead. Beyond that however she appeared fine, wearing her usual skirt and colossal grin.

"Hey, you're awake!" she exclaimed, starting to dive towards her for a tackling hug, only to be stopped by a hand grabbing the back of her jacket. Sighing when she shot him an annoyed look, Ren first winced when he let go, then offered a smile to the red toned girl. He too had his normal ensemble on, though she could see bandages poking through the gaps where skin showed.

The two cleared out of the way to allow Weiss to enter, managing to stay composed up until she saw Ruby. A happy smile crossed her when she strode to the bedside, somehow appearing unharmed (although the dark circles under her eyes told a different story). Her white and blue dressed had a few wrinkles, but nothing that looked out of place.

"Good to see you." she greeted with visible relief.

The last to arrive did so in a pair, for good reason as Ruby saw. Pyrrha walked into the room, sending a smile at her the second she came into sight. The red huntress returned it, though her sight strayed to the mass of bandages around her shoulder, as well as the arm held securely in a sling. Both stood out sharply compared to her bronze armor and corset. Right after her came Jaune, walking with a noticeable limp which caused a wince across his face with every step. Although he was missing his usual armor over his hoodie and jeans, she noted he had a holster strapped onto his thigh.

With a grunt Taiyang stood up to back away, leaning against the wall to let the seven strong group crowd their friend.

"How ya feelin?"

"Any aches and pains?"

"Told you she'd be fine."

"Good to see you pulled through."

Ruby held up her stiff hands, trying to stop the tears from spilling. "I'm fine guys. I'm just happy you're all okay."

"Yeah, that was rough." Jaune admitted, giving the back of his neck a scratch as he smiled sheepishly.

"This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't split from us." Weiss admonished, although her relieved grin undercut the effect.

"It could've been a lot worse." Blake said, resting her hands on the bed frame.

Yang chuckled as she crossed her arms, needing a moment to get her hands to a comfortable spot. "All said and done, we got off light for all we did."

"Oh yeah. Nothing that can't be walked off." Nora proclaimed, giving a hearty slap to Pyrrha's injured shoulder; immediately the redhead yelped, recoiling as her expression scrunched up in renewed pain. The ginger's smile dropped, drawing her hand back. "Oops, sorry."

"Gentle Nora, gentle." Ren chided in good humor, his own arms crossed when both he and Jaune sent a sympathetic look to Pyrrha's hissing.

Ruby stifled a laugh, but she noted an subtle tenseness in the atmosphere. All of them, they kept shifting their footing, focusing then gazing away from her, and repeatedly force the smiles. As she dwelled on the observation, she realized it was the same thing her father was hiding minutes ago. Whatever the cause was, it was adding a frayed edge to the collective cheer, which no one was quick to acknowledge.

She wanted to ask what the problem was, but as she started the girl was interrupted by an echoey double knock. Nine pairs of eyes swiveled to the door, finding one of the last people anybody expected.

"Hiya kids." greeted O'Neill, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. His very presence made half the room stand at attention, with Jaune coughing into a fist.

"Sir-" he started, only for the Colonel to swipe a hand.

"You're off duty guys, take it easy." he said, dropping his arms. "Mind if I come in?"

"Um, sure, go ahead." Yang hesitantly invited.

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, O'Neill walked to the end of the bed, the others parting just enough to give him room. "Hey Lil Red, how ya feeling?"

"I'm okay." Ruby answered, glancing over when her father sighed.

"Things okay on your end Jack?" Taiyang asked, his goodwill fading.

O'Neill shrugged. "Eh, mostly Tai. Got a speech later, not looking forward to that. Can't pawn this off on Carter, Teal'c and speeches don't blend, and Daniel already told me he's not doing it."

"Figures." he shook his head in wry bemusement.

Blinking at the friendly greet, Ruby swiveled to Yang with a raised brow. "Okay, what all did I miss?"

The blonde sighed, exchanging a look with the others. Again something flashed over her friends' expressions, a hint of gnawing fear. They were worried, but why?

"Well for starters, we won." she began, glancing to Weiss pensively.

"And, um, the secrets out." the white haired girl admitted, shrugging to loosen up.

"Yeah, the CCT Network almost crashed from all the traffic." Blake took over, receiving a confirming nod. "The alien ship and soldiers who helped save Beacon, it's all over the headlines."

Jaune coughed into a fist. "None of us were named if you're wondering. The news disclosed the Stargate, Earth, and some details about the galaxy, but they didn't say who was responsible for finding any of it. Except for Colonel O'Neill and SG-1. They're kinda famous now."

"Along with Colonel Pendergast and the ground forces leaders, they're practically celebrities." Ren added, Nora bobbing her head in agreement.

"And I called in a favor." O'Neill proclaimed, wearing a large smirk when he sent a pointed nod towards the faunus.

"Oh, right. Hang on." Blake dove for her pocket, rooting around for a moment as Nora leaned in close.

"You got bragging rights now." she whispered deviously, right when the dark haired girl succeeded in withdrawing her scroll.

"No signal, I know." Blake muttered when she opened the device, switching around to place it in her grip. "Check this out."

Ruby peered at the photo she took, needing a second to process what she was looking at. She could see herself on the bed, clearly unconscious with Taiyang situated beside her. Instead of the calm reassurance he had now, her father was shrinking back with a wide eyed look of poorly masked terror, focused entirely on a strange creature standing at the other side. She could see the thing was barely a fraction of her own height, presenting an unclothed back of speckled grey skin to the camera. Although short, its entire form appeared disturbingly thin. The fact it seemed to be examining her while she was out cold wasn't helping her impression.

"And." Blake reached over to swipe, flipping to the next picture.

Yang and O'Neill were in frame with Weiss slapping her face in the background, apparently still in the same room. Both were grinning widely as they looked into the camera, all while the same creature from the first picture was sandwiched between them, this time facing forward. The girl's eyes were drawn to the bulbous head and all black eyes, noting a tiny mouth set in place on the bottom of its head. Somehow, her intuition told the girl this being was quite puzzled at the turn of events.

"Um..." she glanced up with a confused frown.

"Thor dropped by." Pyrrha answered the unspoken question, sighing to herself.

"Oh." Ruby nodded, right before her expression wrinkled. "Wait, Thor? The alien god who protects Earth and Cimmeria?" she asked, mouth slightly agape as she flipped between her friends and the scroll.

"The same." Jaune answered, shifting his weight off the weak leg.

"Yeah, rememberer when I said you had different help?" Taiyang voiced, sucking in a breath. "This, ah, Asgard thing. He vanished you with this weird light, and when you returned all your injuries were healed."

"We thought you were a goner, but five minutes with his space magic and you're good as new." Nora playfully nudged her shoulder, grinning. "Told ya, bragging rights."

"I wouldn't exactly call that bragging rights." Pyrrha said as she massaged her bandaged shoulder, switching back to the girl next. "Still, you're very lucky Thor was willing to help."

For just a second, she detected a hint of jealousy in her expression. She was certain there was a trace of the same feeling in the others, but it wasn't as prevalent as the redhead.

"Yeah, definitely." Ruby nodded, gazing back to the picture. She felt leery just looking at the Asgard; on a level she understood Earth people were aliens, being people from another world and all, but since they were human the impact hadn't truly sank in. Now she was looking at a definitive example of extraterrestrial life, one that had brought her back from the brink of death.

"Two days ago Thor stopped by, but he only stuck around for a half hour before he left for Othala again, the whole duty calls song and dance. Before he took off I asked him to do something about you, since you were in a rough way." O'Neill explained, a hint of a frown on him. "I wanna say the little guy was nervous about something, but he wouldn't tell me what it was. All he said to me was 'this was another party's victory.' Weirdest thing."

"I just wanted a selfie." Yang admitted with a smirk, in spite of the dry look Weiss sent her. "Because cmon, how often do you get the chance to hang with aliens?"

"You're on an alien ship." Ren pointed out.

"Yeah, but I mean real aliens. These guys are just regular people." she refuted with a wave of her cast.

"Hey, I resent that." the Earther amongst them objected.

"It was really interesting to see him though. To think that little being is worshipped on dozens of planets." Blake shook her head wryly, accepting her scroll back.

Taiyang coughed. "Yeah, I'd rather not do that over. And was it too much to ask to warn me first?"

"Sorry mister Xiao Long, but that was too funny to pass up." Nora stifled a laugh.

"Seriously dad, you almost jumped through a wall." Yang chuckled when he rolled his eyes. "I did chat with Thor for a little bit, he's kinda cute once you get over the alien thing."

"Easier said than done." Weiss mumbled, sucking in a breath.

"He's still a nice guy. And he fixed you up, so I owe the little dude." the blonde finished with another wave.

Ruby nodded, her smile dropping at the same time as the cheer. "So, how bad was it?"

No one answered her immediately. Exchanging worried looks, their silent deliberating ceased when O'Neill cleared his throat, sweeping around to confirm. When no one challenged his offer, he glanced to the bedridden girl.

"Counting the troops from Earth, the casualty list is over a thousand right now. The Rangers were the hardest hit, seventy percent of the company didn't make it. A couple hundred were civilians in Vale, the rest of the losses were either Atlas troops or Huntsmen. There's at least double that number for wounded, enough to overwhelm the local hospitals for a little while." he said lowly.

"In exchange there's about a thousand White Fang prisoners who surrendered, they're being kept on a cargo ship until somebody decides what to do about them." Blake finished for him, suppressing a grimace.

"So many." Ruby said quietly.

When Taiyang squeezed her hand again, she sent a downcast look towards him. "Don't be like that. This could've been a lot worse than what it was."

"A lot more people would've died if not for us." Yang consoled, starting to reach over but stopping herself.

"I know." she nodded, her gaze falling regardless.

The room fell silent again, but this time there was no doubt: the tense feeling she sensed earlier had returned in force. She sighed, internally bracing herself.

Jaune took the hint, slowly meeting her gaze. "The last of the offworld soldiers gated home this morning, and the negotiations will be wrapped up later today. Once the repairs are done tomorrow, the _Prometheus_ is returning to Earth."

"Right." she nodded, her eyes falling to her stomach.

Taiyang squeezed her hand again, making her look to him. Her father's expression was wrinkled, the man meeting her gaze then looking away. For a moment he peered to the others, Ruby following his line of sight to discover her friends were the same way. They averted their eyes from her, silently wincing under her attention. O'Neill was the lone exception, but even he showed no trace of his former bemusement.

"Ruby." he began, gulping. "There's something I need to tell you."

"Yeah?" she asked quietly, swallowing a lump of her own.

"Its... its about Cinder." he finally got out.

Ruby turned from her father, letting out a shuddering breath. "I know."

"Listen, you-" he started, pausing when she squeezed tightly.

"I... I did something terrible. But." she clenched her fists. Though her bangs obscured much of her face, the scrunched up look of revulsed loathing was clear for anyone to see. "I, I had to, okay? She was, she was..."

"Hey, hey, hey." he gripped her shoulders, drawing her into a hug. Without prompting Yang closed in to join him, doing what she could to offer support. "Listen, nobody's blaming you. I understand why you did it."

"Its okay." Pyrrha stepped in, laying a hand on her side. Seconds later Ren copied her, followed by Blake, Weiss, Nora, then Jaune, all done in quick succession.

"Take it from me kid, sometimes there's only one way to deal with somebody. You shouldn't be proud of what happened, but don't beat yourself up over it." O'Neill spoke up, catching several uncertain looks from the others.

"But I-I killed-" she gulped, giving Yang an opportunity to pull her into a hug. Her casts made the task more difficult than it needed to be, but the intent behind her action got across. Combined with the collective support from her friends, Ruby finally sighed.

When Yang drew back, she mustered a thin smile to her sister. However, she saw the nagging fear behind the expression, tainting what should've been a comforting gesture. She must have tipped her off somehow, for in the next moment the blonde took a shuddering breath.

"There's... something you need to know." she got out slowly.

"Do you want me to..." Blake offered with a raised hand, wrinkling her face when Yang shook her head.

"No, I'll do it." she replied, settling a look of concealed pain upon her sister.

"What is it?" Ruby asked carefully, frowning now. She switched from person to person for any sign, but all that greeted her were uncomfortable winces. "What's the matter?"

"Ozpin told us what happened when... you..." Yang set her casts on her sister's sides, fighting back a cringe.

"Yang, please tell me what's wrong." Ruby's voice was tinged with worry, trying to prepare herself for what was coming.

At last she sighed, locking eyes with her. "You're the new Fall Maiden."

Apart from the faint voices and the humming machinery, the room was silent. The great secret had been shared at last, although its passing did not, indeed could not, renew the combined groups spirits. Tension was replaced by unease, ranging from Jaune's silent grimacing, to O'Neill's stark blankness, all the way to Blake's quiet breath. Yang and Taiyang were the hardest hit by the truth being revealed, both focusing on her reaction to the news.

Ruby stared blankly; her mouth hung agape in raw bafflement. "What?"

"Ozpin told us, well, me, how this happened." Yang said, sighing to herself. "Apparently, whoever was in the last thoughts of the previous holder gets the power next. Since you..." she didn't finish, choosing to cringe instead.

"But..." she turned to the others once more, searching for any sign of this being a prank. Everyone she laid eyes on shirked from her gaze.

"It's all true." Weiss said quietly, her eyes dropping. She wasn't the only one, not by far.

"She's right. Thought this Maiden thing was bunk myself, but when Thor describes somebody's internal makeup as 'interesting' I figure there's something to it." O'Neill said with a shrug.

"Would've been nice if anybody told us this stuff first." Nora muttered ruefully, shaking her head.

"And." Taiyang began, squeezing his eyes shut when she glanced his way. "Ozpin told me its not reacting normally to you. For whatever reason, the power is acting up on the inside. Nobody's ever seen anything like this."

Ruby sensed her father knew more than he was letting on, but she didn't want to press him just yet. Instead she gulped, trying to keep her swimming vision steady.

"So I..." her head picked up, causing her friends to do the same; there was a noise from the doorway, two pair of marching feet swiftly closing in.

Everyone save for O'Neill stiffened when the new arrivals came into view, the tension in the room swiftly rising when they entered. With a muffled sigh, he turned around with his arms crossed over his chest, settling a blank look on the interlopers.

"Colonel O'Neill." greeted General Ironwood friendlily, confidently stepping through the doorway with his hands clasped behind his back. He was clad in a regalia like dress uniform, looking crisp and proper compared to the recovering huntsmen inside, smiling warmly in a way that wasn't faked.

"General." O'Neill replied with a perfunctory nod, stepping to the side to let Ruby see the Atlesian's companion. "Mister Branwen."

In a sharp contrast Qrow still looked as ragged as when he first arrived that fateful night, although Ruby noted he appeared to have cleaned himself up decently well. Just as her friends were he too was disarmed, his own scythe nowhere to be found; she realized her own stuff was missing, hopefully being held somewhere safe. Unlike Ironwood, he stayed back to lean on the doorframe, his face downcast. She wanted to call out to him, but the way her uncle carried himself set off warning signs in her mind.

"So then." the General paused a meter from the bed, a flick of his eyes proceeding O'Neill and Jaune to step aside, letting him see the bedridden girl without any obstacles. "Miss Rose, how are you feeling?"

Catching a grimace from Blake and Pyrrha, she cleared her throat. "I'm fine."

"Excellent. I wasn't present to witness this special friend of the Colonel's aid you." he gestured with his right hand at O'Neill, still standing with his arms crossed watching him. "But regardless, I'm pleased to see you're doing alright."

Ironwood's pleased smile was making her spine tingle, the girl briefly squirming to stop an involuntary shiver. There was something in the General's tone that wasn't right, something which was telling her not to trust him. The way Qrow refused to join their party did no favors to this feeling. It was impossible for him to not notice the girl subtly going on guard in his presence, let alone her friends and family doing the same, but he gave no indicator of acknowledging the shift in atmosphere.

Taiyang coming up to the bedside was the point where he took his eyes off her, landing on the blond man's frown.

"What's this about General Ironwood?" he inquired flatly.

If the man was displeased by the question, he didn't show it. "Just some business to take care of Mister Xiao Long. I'd prefer to speak to you about this matter in private-"

"How about we don't." Yang butted in, frowning herself. The older girl politely jostled Ren and Weiss out of the way to get closer to the bed, all three staring at the interloper with restrained suspicion.

"Please sir, I insist." Ironwood gestured to the door with one hand, an offer no one took him up on. Something flashed over his face when his arm lowered, the limb returning to his back. "Are you certain you want to discuss this here?"

"They already know about the Maiden." Jaune supplied from his position. He earned a measured look from the Atlesian, several emotions flickering across his expression at the young man's presence.

"Very well. Looks like we'll do this here." he said lowly, rolling his shoulders.

"How about you skip to the chase?" Weiss suggested, causing a brief wave of nods over the small party.

Ironwood tilted his head back to nod, his breath hissing through the gaps in his teeth.

"Miss Rose, do you understand the significance of what happened to you?" he began slowly, focusing his gaze on the girl.

"A little. It means I can do the same stuff as..." Ruby grimaced instead of finishing. The girl lifted her hands to peer, features wrinkled in uncertain thought.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple." Ironwood said, making her look up. His smile had dropped several notches, though he hadn't looked away from her. "The fact is, you're in a predicament no one ever accounted for."

"How exactly?" Nora interrupted, exchanging a puzzled look with Ren.

"I'm more curious at how you know about this stuff." Blake stepped in, frowning at him.

"Ordinarily I would never consider this, but..." Ironwood shrugged, sparing a glance over his shoulder. "But alright. I shouldn't have to explain the gravity of this information, so I expect discretion for the matter."

"Keep quiet, got it. Now go on." Yang said forcefully, brow wrinkled at him as the others nodded.

"Good, now." the man hesitated, sparing a frown when Ren made a circular gesture in the air. "I'm part of an ancient order, which has kept watch over the Maidens for countless centuries. Our goal has been to keep them safe from any faction that wishes to exploit their powers. Myself and other leaders across Remnant's history have worked tirelessly to protect their secrets, safeguarding knowledge from the world."

Although wary confusion overtook the huntsmen at the revelation, the Earthborn Colonel in their midst snorted derisively. "Oh great, space freemasons."

"Excuse me?" the General peered to him to raise a brow.

"Never mind, go on." O'Neill dismissed with a wave.

A muffled huff left Ironwood when he glanced back to Ruby. "Anyway, as you can well imagine, Cinder Fall." her momentary cringe paused for a second. "Her actions were... a setback to our mission. A setback that was dealt with, thanks to you. Although you in particular doing so was a complication."

"Why?" Yang stepped in, sparing glances at her friends.

"A minor issue." he evaded. "But the important thing is the Fall Maiden is in secure hands once again. I've come here to safeguard the power."

"Safeguard?" Ruby asked carefully, warily raising a brow.

"Yes. There are a number of methods available, but for the sake of your own health there's one option." he explained, expression flickering when he saw the unease on them all. "There is a device in Atlas, it's designed to transfer Auras from one subject to another. With this, the Maiden power can be safely removed from you."

"Transfer Auras? That's, that's unnatural." Pyrrha spoke aloud, features wrinkled at the man. While Blake and Weiss shared a look of unease, Jaune's face hardened dangerously.

"You're far from the first to note this. Unfortunately, the machine in question is a prototype. The finished model was relocated to Beacon during the last battle, and was subsequently destroyed during the fighting. This one isn't as... refined, as the one formerly present here, but it should do the trick." Ironwood finished, straightening himself out.

"I dunno..." Ruby looked away, frowning as she contemplated the explanation.

"Rest assured, I'll ensure all protective measures will be taken. If we leave now, counting travel time this matter will be closed by tomorrow night." he added confidently.

Ten pairs of eyes swiveled to the General, most showing a degree of surprise at the man's words.

"Hang on." Taiyang gently moved Weiss and Pyrrha out of the way, letting him face the Atlesian fully. "What do you mean leave now?"

"Exactly that. To my understanding, Miss Rose is in good health, so transporting her shouldn't be a problem." he said, gesturing to the bed. "This isn't something to dawdle on. The sooner we deal with the matter, the better off she'll be."

"Now wait a sec." O'Neill spoke up, waving a hand to get Ironwood to glance over. "You said this soul sucker thingy is a prototype, right?"

"Correct." he answered, suppressing a flash of irritation.

The Colonel let out a quiet groan, crossing his arms. "In my experience, prototypes tend to have a bad safety record." he slowly cracked his neck with a knuckle. "So when you say measures, what exactly are you talking about?"

"I won't bore with the details, but rest assured I'll do everything in my power to ensure Miss Rose's health." Ironwood smoothly replied.

O'Neill narrowed his eyes. "That's not an answer."

"I fail to see how it's any of your concern O'Neill." he switched around with a trace of irritation.

"It is for me." Yang snapped, leveling a harsh glare on the General while she laid a hand across her sister.

"The machine will work, that I can assure you. Surely you'd rather your sister try this option than to see her get locked away for the rest of her life." he said coolly, sweeping his eyes around the room.

Almost in unison, the collective party snapped their heads to him.

"Excuse me?" Weiss jumped in indignantly, lips curled back.

"Oh no, you did not go there." Nora said dangerously, all traces of her smile dropped.

"Remnant isn't ready for the Maidens to roam free. Especially now, with almost everyone on the planet knowing about the wider galaxy. The risks are too great." he explained tightly.

"So you're gonna toss Ruby in a cell for the rest of her life?" Pyrrha questioned caustically, adding her glare to her friends.

"Or worse, you're gonna kill her." Jaune said coldly, one hand going to his side.

"Of course not, her every need will be met." he answered, tone rising in pitch.

"But I'll still be a prisoner." Ruby stated warily.

"You're too important for anything less. How many times do I need to say it?" Ironwood all but snapped, features sliding into a poorly restrained scowl. "I'm done arguing. You can either come along willingly, or I'll cause an incident."

 _Click_.

Instantly the room fell silent. The rising anger, the growing tension, all of it was abruptly halted by the tiny sound. It didn't take long for everyone in the tiny room to peer over, locking on to the source with wide eyes. Surprise replaced agitation, and nowhere was this more prevalent than on Ironwood's stunned expression, the General stiffening uncomfortably at the rapid shift. All were caught off guard by the simple action, all save for the perpetrator.

Jaune's expression was heavily wrinkled, but his two handed grip on the M9 was unwavering,

"You're not taking her." he almost whispered, features set in stone despite the attention he was under.

Ruby gulped. "Jaune, what're you doing?"

"Making a choice." he replied simply.

Ironwood blinked repeatedly at the sight. But his shock wore off fast, and the man's expression slid into a scowl.

"Put that gun down." he commanded slowly.

"Walk away General." Jaune answered, the weapon unmoving.

"Ah screw this." Yang snapped. The blonde stood up fully, bringing her casts up into her usual combat stance. There was no way she could do any sort of damage in her current state, but she didn't seem to care. "You want her, you're gonna have to go through me."

"And me." Taiyang joined as well, hands curling into fists.

"I'm with you." Pyrrha stood beside Jaune, sparing a hopeful look at the red toned girl.

"Guys..." Ruby said breathlessly.

Ren glanced to Nora inquisitively, receiving a lackluster shrug.

"Oh well, what do we have to lose?" the orange haired girl said easily, turning to affix a glare upon the man. Her longtime companion didn't need to say a thing, his shifting posture was all the answer they needed.

Weiss chuckled darkly, cracking her knuckles. "Stand with my friends, or go home to my family. What a difficult decision." her smile dropped quickly however, slowly turning to her last teammate. "Hey, you don't have to..."

" _No_." Blake snapped testily, for a moment sending a harsh look at her companion. "You don't get to play the 'friends to the end' card and ask me if I wanna to bail, not a chance. My parents will understand." she said before joining the others.

"I wanted to see my mother again, but if this is the way things are, then so be it." Pyrrha rolled her shoulders, sparing a wry look to Jaune. "Aren't you glad you left Eliane in a hotel?"

"Not a lot, but if she were here there'd be a body on the ground." Jaune said without taking his eyes off the General.

The strain in the room was reaching a boiling point; between Ironwood's bared teeth and the combined glaring of the eight huntsmen, the air was thick with nearly palpable tension. Softly groaning, the General's glare was turned upon the outsider of the group, who hadn't moved from the wall he leaned on. He alone seemed to be at ease, safely out of the young man's line of fire.

"Colonel, aren't you gonna do something?" he questioned darkly.

"I could, but I won't." O'Neill shrugged. "I'm looking at either a commendation or a court martial when I get back home, probably both. So I figure I shouldn't push my luck any further." he rolled his eyes wistfully. "That, and I'm pretty sure if I did get involved, I'd take their side and throw you out by your collar. It's nothing personal, I just have a problem with anybody who's willing to hurt a kid."

Ironwood drew back a step, an opportunity the group exploited by forming a shell around Ruby's bed. The red toned girl switched from person to person, to her astonishment finding the same face on all of them. Her father, Yang, Ren, Blake, Nora, Weiss, Pyrrha, and Jaune all sported identical expressions of guarded wariness, every one of them focused on the Atlesian. The gun in the blond's hands never deviated from his target.

Halting two paces from his former position, Ironwood first sent another sour glance towards O'Neill, still leaning against the far wall. The most he did was blankly peer at Jaune, an act which somehow made the young man flinch. With another sigh he shrugged, slowly shaking his head at the General.

Features set into a hard line, the headmaster leveled a glare upon the assembled guardians.

"Qrow, take care of this." he said aloud, an unmistakable layer of command in his tone.

Ruby wasn't able to see her uncle due to the Atlesian blocking the path, but she could quite clearly hear a drawn out sigh.

"James, I know we've had our disagreements over the years, but I'm man enough to admit when you're right. This is bigger than any one person, especially now. The Maidens are just too important to be left alone." went his tired reply.

A hint of a smirk crossed Ironwood when Qrow left his perch, slowly meandering around the man. Hands in his pockets, the downcast huntsman entered the group's vision; Yang visibly stiffened at the sight of her uncle, and Ruby could easily see the souring expression of her father, the blond's fists clenching upon making eye contact. Jaune kept the pistol aimed at his first target, but he kept glancing between the two men, even as Weiss, Nora, and Ren took up defensive stances.

Qrow stopped between the two sides, sending a look of utter exhaustion towards O'Neill. The man merely shrugged. Puffing up his chest, the ragged huntsman let the breath out as an extended sigh. Ruby gulped, bracing herself; a dozen possibilities of what her beloved uncle would do crossed her mind, knowing his skills outclassed everyone present save for her father. If he attacked now, there was little any of them could do to stop him.

"So, there's only one thing left to do." he said quietly, standing up fully. The group tensed in anticipation, readying for his attack.

Qrow took a deep breath, and without removing his hands, swiveled back the way he came.

Ironwood blinked yet again, this time needing a solid half minute to formulate a reply. "Qrow..."

"If it were anybody else James. Anybody but the two people left in this rotten world I still care for, the two I've done the best I could to keep safe all these years." went his simple answer, flopping his head around to Taiyang. "So Tai, truce for now?"

"Y-yeah, truce." the blond nodded shakily, alongside the uncertainty draining away from the entire group. Ruby in particular gawked at him, at a loss for what was going on but elated all the same.

"You're joking." Ironwood snapped angrily, features twisting into a scowl.

"'Fraid not. Say Jack, you guys hiring?" Qrow leaned his head, catching the older man rolling his eyes.

"So, you're with us?" Weiss checked, earning a backwards nod.

"Great." Nora chortled as she cracked her knuckles.

"You don't know what you've done. You'll leave her to a painful death." Ironwood threatened, yet he took a step back nonetheless.

"We'll handle it." Jaune declared lowly, making a gesture with the M9.

Blake sighed. "I did want to see more of Earth when we were there. But this wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

"That's okay. Say Nora, you said there was a good pancake restaurant in that springs place?" Yang grinned, even as she spared an uncertain look at a suddenly nervous Taiyang.

Ruby swept her head around, breathlessly taking in the atmosphere. Everything was moving too fast for her to process; she was still stumbling over the revelation of the Maiden power, how she was a holder of something formerly out of a myth. The fact Ironwood was a guardian of the Maidens was perhaps an easier thing to deal with, at least compared to her uncle working for the General, or the danger he wanted her subjected to. But what simply didn't compute was the reactions of those she held dear.

Her friends and family stood by her, ready to give up everything if it meant she would be safe. A part of her wondered if any of them knew what they were getting into, what was at stake now. She herself was trying to wrap her mind around staying to Earth, attempting fo imagine how that would go, or what would happen to them afterwards. Rubbing her aching eyes, she just took in a fresh breath, hoping the worst wouldn't come to pass.

"That's quite enough."

Ironwood was nearly shot by Jaune when he whirled around, twisting himself to face the door. In the process he alerted the combined occupants of the newest arrival at the entrance.

Standing firm with his cane supporting his weight, Ozin took in the sight before him with professional indifference. "I'll take it from here."

 _Tap tap_ , went the old man's cane with every step, methodically entering the room with the utmost care. Neither the watchful eyes of the party, nor the gun zeroing in on his torso seemed to bother him. Not until he was nearly to the bed did he stop, and only because Jaune stepped in his way.

"Please, step aside." he requested neutrally.

Jaune tightened his grip, lips curled back. "You're not taking her."

"Did any of you ask what Miss Rose wanted?" he said aloud, causing the young man's hard expression to fracture. "It's not your decision to make, its hers. Now, please move."

He sucked in a breath, exchanging a look with his friends as he did so. Instead of supporting his defiance, the two teams showed wary curiosity at Ozpin's presence. Jaune looked as if he wanted to continue blocking him, but a pair of cleared throats (one from O'Neill, the other from Qrow) caused him to back away with an exasperated sigh, lowering the weapon. He stayed within arms reach however, grimacing at the headmaster coming up to the bed.

Ozpin laid a hand on the frame by Ruby's feet, settling a neutral expression upon the fidgeting girl. "Miss Rose."

"Um, Headmaster Ozpin?" she reluctantly greeted, stealing a glance at her sister for a sign; unfortunately, Yang looked just as clueless as her.

"I'm assuming you were informed of your present circumstances?" he inquired flatly.

A flash of pain crossed her expression, but in the end she nodded.

"Seeing as it's your wellbeing being affected here, it should be your choice on how it's resolved." he began.

"What's that mean?" Weiss questioned, doing a double take when he raised a flattened hand towards her.

"Resolved how?" Ruby decided to ask.

"You may take James' option, subjecting yourself to an unproven machine. It's risky, but also the quickest option to remove the Maiden power from you." he explained flatly, even as Yang drew a cast back. "You may also keep the power yourself, taking on the mantle of the Fall Maiden. Of this, I can only promise you will be in constant poor health."

"Why?"

"Your eyes." he gestured, causing her frown to deepen. "Those with the Silver Eyes were never meant to host the power of the Maidens, they react poorly to one another. Your severe injuries certainly exacerbated your condition, although Thor restoring you put off the decline." at the banal mention O'Neill glanced over sharply, raising a brow that went unnoticed. "But ultimately, his aid was only temporary. Even now your body is a battleground with no victor."

"I didn't know-" she started, halting when he shook his head.

"That's quite alright. Some fault lies with me, keeping knowledge from you despite proving yourself trustworthy." he said, for a moment glancing away with a sigh.

Ruby hung her head, grimacing at the information. When she raised her head again, the red huntress gulped. "Is that it?"

"You can always go to Earth." Ozpin shrugged, the girl hearing Ironwood sputtering behind him. "Perhaps their medical and scientific knowledge can solve your dilemma, or one of their allies can help. I'll admit this choice will harm Remnant-Earth relations, but nothing short of an armed invasion will reverse the widespread support for this new alliance. Diplomatically speaking, we can't let even something as grave as a Maiden leaving this world affect these new ties."

The wizened headmaster stood up fully, bringing up a knuckle to tug on his scarf.

"Your friends' dedication to you is inspiring, but in the end, it's your fate that is on the line. The choice should be yours." he finished with a lackluster wave.

Ruby hung her head, thinking. Risk her life with Ironwood's machine? Keep the mantle in a prison as per Ozpin's suggestion? Run to Earth as Jaune wanted? None of the options were good, that much was clear.

She heard her friends shifting, murmuring to themselves and each other as she deliberated. They had already made up their minds on what to do, willing to give up everything to ensure her safety. Perhaps in time they would regret their decisions, but for now they were committed, willing to see this through. She had few ties outside of the people in this room, so whatever happened here wouldn't affect many others. Certainly she wasn't going to harm anyone else by her actions.

But the facts behind her dilemma didn't change. Blood was on her hands; Cinder deserved what she got, she had an opportunity that may never have been repeated, she prevented her from hurting anyone else ever again, there were so many justifications. Yet no amount of reasoning could change what she thought. Nothing could stop the guilt she felt for her actions. To take away the power or running away, it felt like she was escaping the responsibility for what she'd done.

The red toned girl took in a deep breath.

"I'll keep it." Ruby said softly, lifting her head to Ozpin. "I... I'll accept the mantle."

"Are you certain?" he asked, neutral in expression unlike all of her friends.

She nodded, releasing a shuddering breath. "Yeah. For what I've done..."

"Ruby..." Yang reached toward her plaintively. Taiyang laid a hand on her shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze.

"I understand." Ozpin rolled his shoulders. "I'll go make the preparations. For now, you can rest."

The old headmaster turned away, calm despite the wary looks he received, to say nothing of Ironwood's dropped jaw. Midway to the door he stopped, turning his flat gaze upon Qrow, who crossed his arms at the attention.

"Mister Brawen, are you sure about your resignation?" he asked neutrally.

"I'm sure Oz. Are you okay with this?" he turned around.

"Entirely. Your niece made her decision, I'll honor it. I wish you luck in your future endeavors." he gave a perfunctory curtsy, walking away as the man sighed to himself.

Ironwood breathlessly tracked his counterpart leave without a word, jaw hanging open at the display for the entire time. Only when he vanished from sight did he finally snap out of it, taking off in a sprint after him.

O'Neill left his wall to peer quizzically over the party. "Okay, was that a cultural thing I'm in the dark about?"

"No way." Qrow spoke up, rolling his shoulders. "I've know Oz for years, he would never do anything like this."

"What did just happen actually?" Blake spoke up.

00000

"Ozpin, have you lost your mind?" Ironwood demanded, stomping a foot on the floor.

The two had made it to the end of the storage compartment hallway, for the moment free from the eagle eyed guards. Had either of them been in the mood they could have sabotaged or spied on the vessel to their heart's content; the possibility didn't cross the General's mind, so focused was he on his cane-bound counterpart.

Ozpin halted at an intersection, still facing forward like he hadn't heard him. "You should leave James."

"Leave? After that?" he snarled, flinging his arms almost close enough to swat the old man. "All these years, all of your contingencies, and you're willing to let a Maiden go just like that? What's wrong with you?"

When the headmaster didn't reply, Ironwood drew back with a scowl, ready to grab the old man and throttle sense back into him. But before he could do a thing, a cold breeze ghosted over his neck.

Ironwood jerked away, swinging his head around to see only air. Right then he discovered the two were alone; the _Prometheus_ wasn't a large ship, carrying a crew of over a hundred. Yet somehow they were the only souls in earshot. With his breathing picking up, the General slowly began to reach for his revolver, feeling an uncomfortable shiver crawl up his spine.

"I had a feeling you'd show up." Ozpin said softly, practically frozen in place.

"Spot on."

Whipping around with his gun in hand, Ironwood paused for a moment at the bizarre sight: without him hearing or seeing anything, a woman had materialized in the hallway in front of the men. His eyes roamed over the figure leaning on the wall, her dusky toned expression grinning with her eyes closed, facing a wall rather than the pair. A quick peek at her tan robes showed no weapon, though he focused on her crossed arms for a wary moment to make sure.

"I assumed doing something uncharacteristic of me would draw you out." Ozpin said, tipping his head back to look at her.

"Not necessarily, but I won't deny it helped." the woman flopped her head towards them, opening her eyes to reveal brilliant golden irises. "Names Anansi. I'm curious, what tipped you off?"

"JNPR's explanation when they returned to Beacon. The events they described couldn't be ascribed to chance, not as consistently as they told it. Their timing was just too perfect." he replied.

"You got me. If it makes you feel better, the Tau'ri figured it out pretty quickly." she shrugged, her rustling clothes making no sound.

"From there, it was relatively easy to deduce you and your mortal allies had your sights set upon those two teams. The arrival and subsequent death of Tyrian Callows proved it." he explained, eyes narrowing.

"He was a tool, nothing more. Shame he never got to see the world he helped create." Anansi shifted her weight as she spoke. "Still, for an outcome I'd say you came out ahead."

"Despite the grievances that have befallen me, I'll certainly agree with that." Ozpin said, switching hands on his cane.

The woman's smirk grew. "You know they still talk about you up there?"

"With scorn I'd imagine." he said dryly.

"Mostly. There are a few who look up to you for the lengths you've gone though. They admire you." Anansi shrugged once more.

"Had they done the same, I doubt they'd agree." he continued, bringing up a hand to straighten his glasses.

"I dunno, something about splitting up your essence to stay down here sounds pretty devoted." she gazed down the hallway for a moment as she spoke.

"Necessity, nothing more. One mortal lifespan just wasn't enough time to truly help this world. I either had to accept mutilating my soul, or watch the people here die from afar. You know the rest." Ozpin said, coldness seeping into his tone.

"I heard your reasoning second hand, but I still think you're someone to look up to. There's one thing that's been bothering me though." the woman frowned, shifting on the wall. "Why were you caught off guard by some of the information? Surely you knew the importance bits for a long time now."

"There are gaps in my memory, from when I was... sundered." he glanced to the floor for a moment, grimacing. "Some things I remember clearly, and others I can recall nothing of. If I knew the Astria Portia was so close to Beacon this entire time..." Ozpin shook his head. "But some are simply because my knowledge is out of date."

"Such as?" Anansi probed.

"The technology here, where it came from." he replied, gesturing at the bulkheads. "In my era, Tyr may have been willing to share some of his people's knowledge to humans, but Odin would never permit it. Benevolent or not, he was pragmatic in his calculations. And Borr." he paused, steadying himself. When he spoke next, his voice had gone deathly quiet. "Borr would've gladly torched an entire galactic arm before considering uplifting any race. His death was a blessing for the Asgard, even if doing so allowed Ra's ascendency."

"A bit puzzling, but I understand." the woman shrugged once more, cracking her neck.

"If chatting is all you came to do, then you should take your leave." Ozpin said, focusing his gaze on the stranger.

"Not gonna ask how I got away with interfering? You get ripped apart for trying to stop the Grimm, but I can do what I please?" she challenged, growing a smirk.

"You're extremely limited in what you can and can't do. Why else would you go through all these convoluted games?" he answered dryly. "Your reasons have no use to me. You have what you wanted, there's no point in sticking around."

The woman huffed. "Fair enough. But before I go."

She pushed herself off the wall, making zero sounds as she moved to the middle of the walkway, facing the headmaster. Ironwood had watched the entire meeting with bafflement, but now his hackles rose dangerously. Anansi met Ozpin's gaze, and dropped her smile.

"I'm here to deliver a warning from my ally. Those two teams were the focus of this entire effort." she nodded in the way the men came from, although neither tracked her direction. "Leave them be."

"Why the interest?" he questioned.

The air seemed to chill several degrees.

"Listen to me closely _Ozma_." she began, watching him stiffen. "This is the price of my intervention. You didn't earn this victory. The price in lives and treasure you paid was insufficient for what you've gained. A new golden era is about to begin, one that will propel Remnant to the status of a galactic power, instead of a historical footnote. The cost for such a thing was so trivial to be nonexistent. But none of this was for you. If you harm or obstruct any of my chosen ones, you will be removed as Salem was."

"You can't do that." Ozpin replied coldly.

"No, but my allies can. The servants of Those-From-Beyond are crafty and resourceful, carrying out operations that can alter the fates of trillions. I would never have joined their cause otherwise." her tone lowered an octave, somehow stifling the air. "This is your first and last warning: RWBY and JNPR are to be left alone. Ensuring the Maiden's security is all you're permitted to do. You can have this world to lord over, but them? They. Are. _Mine_." Anansi growled dangerously. "Do I make myself clear?"

The headmaster scowled. "Perfectly."

"Good. Enjoy your new era old man." she turned away, her robes swishing in utter silence.

Before she made it five paces, Ozpin called out. "Why?"

"Why?" she repeated, chuckling wryly. "They are a key part of a plan that will save this galaxy. That is all you need to know."

Ironwood blinked once, and Anansi was gone. It was like she never existed in the first place.

"Ozpin..." he said breathlessly, turning his head to the old man.

"That was a ghost of my past James. Knowing more will only hurt you." he answered cryptically, walking away without another word.

00000

"So, what now?" Weiss voiced at last, arms crossed as she grimaced.

"No idea, but kid?" O'Neill turned to Jaune, causing the blond to wince. "You gotta stop pointing guns at people."

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sticking with Ruby." Yang proclaimed quickly, staying close to the bed.

"Me too. I'm gonna make sure Ozpin doesn't double cross you." Taiyang joined her, giving his daughter a gentle squeeze.

Blake sighed. "On the one hand, things have changed. People know about the wider galaxy now, how long is it gonna take before starships are built? There's lots of empty planets out there, plenty of room to start up colonies."

"Yeah, as long as you don't mind trees. So many trees." O'Neill shook his head, sighing to himself.

"The gates buried though." Pyrrha noted, making the faunus nod.

"Not very deeply though, and with how important the ring is its only a matter of time before its dug up." Weiss added with a gesture.

"They better name a planet after me." Nora jumped in; though she was smiling, her eyes showed how forced her cheer was.

"On the other hand, the Grimm are still out there." Ren picked up, this time causing the others to sigh.

"Attacks are probably gonna increase for a while. Once the novelty wears off people will get scared, I know I am." Qrow spoke up, still hanging back from the group.

"Short term, huntsmen will be needed more than ever." Pyrrha nodded, sparing a look to the floor.

Ruby pushed herself further up the bed, in part to do something about the stiffness in her muscles. In doing so, she managed to get all ten occupants in the room to glance to her, especially once she cleared her throat.

"What about you guys?" she asked simply.

A few grimaces met her, a few eyes darted away. But in the end, Jaune took a deep breath, giving the back of his neck a scratch as he took weight off his weak leg.

"Pyrrha's right, Remnant will need huntsmen. Expanding to new planets will only increase demand." he said slowly.

The redhead nodded, giving him a small frown. When Ruby glanced she saw Ren and Nora mimicking her expression, even as they drew frowns from Yang and Blake.

Just as he took a breath, O'Neill clapped his hands together. "Your planet needs you, got it. Well, looks like it's time to break the news, bandaid style."

"You're discharging us from the Air Force." Jaune said, for just a second catching the older man off guard. Offering an apologetic shrug, he sighed. "Eliane told me before I contacted you for the battle."

Recovering fast, the Colonel cleared his throat into a fist. "Yeah she's right. Hammond already put the paperwork through, medical discharge for all of you." rolling his shoulders, he stood tall with his hands held apart. "You've all done fine work for your careers, short as it was, and the United States thanks you for your service."

"Did Hammond outright say they were out?" Weiss suddenly asked.

The room fell silent for a moment, the white haired girl steady under the attention she drew.

"Course he has." O'Neill said quickly, waving a hand dismissively. He adopted a disarming half smile, which succeeded in creating several new frowns.

"Can we see the documents?" Ren asked flatly, arms crossed.

"I'll get them mailed to you, don't worry." he quickly waved off.

"Giving you time to print whatever paper you want?" Yang challenged.

"I mean, if they haven't broken any rules, then what's the problem with keeping them on the payroll?" Qrow asked, twirling his fingers. "I wasn't kidding about working for you guys. If they can get in, then I should."

"Aha, no." O'Neill grinned, rapidly shaking his head as he held up his hands. "It's complicated, that's all I'm gonna say about it."

"You didn't say they're out for sure though." Ruby spoke up.

"That's because I, uh..." O'Neill cleared his throat carefully.

A fresh double knock on the door was the distraction he needed, jerking around before the others with a relieved expression on his face.

"Colonel, there you are." greeted Carter perfunctorily, striding inside at once. The blonde roamed her eyes over the puzzled gathering, frowning for a moment before facing him.

"So Carter, what's the news? The ships fixed and we're leaving?" O'Neill brought his hands together, grinning hopefully.

The blonde coughed into a fist before she clasped her hands behind her back. "Sir, we just received a subspace transmission from Earth. General Hammond has been relieved of duty."

The older man continued to stare blankly at his subordinate, even as the group began murmuring.

"Hammond is to be tried before a senate subcommittee for overstepping his authority, resulting in seventy six Rangers being killed in action. The trial is next week, we have to give testimony." she explained tersely, fighting a grimace.

"Really." O'Neill replied, still smiling as one eye began to twitch.

"Until the trials over, the IOA installed a new administrator for the SGC, one Doctor Weir. Things are going to be hectic at the mountain." she finished, stepping back to sweep her gaze over the party.

"A Doctor ma'am? As in a civilian?" Jaune asked confusedly.

"Correct, at least for the time being. The report mentioned she's to have full authority over the SGC for the duration of her command." Carter explained, switching to O'Neill. "Sir, what's the matter?"

With a sight Jaune glanced to his teammates; first Ren, then Nora, and lastly Pyrrha, each one frowned in thought for a moment. And each one nodded to him.

"Could use more huntsmen here." Weiss spoke up, sighing. "But will four more really matter?"

"You'll make a lot more difference out there I think." Ruby gestured skywards, even as she frowned.

Nora smiled as she laid a hand on the girl. "Hey, don't give me that look. Its not like we wanna leave for good. I'm definitely gonna visit as much as I can."

"It'll be a little complicated to work out a schedule." Blake grinned, huffing listlessly as she crossed her arms.

"Yeah, but it can't be any worse than what's going on here." Yang smiled too, nodding.

The Major cleared her throat. "Given your service records, I don't see a problem with any of you continuing-"

" _Carter_." O'Neill warned, his smile finally cracking.

Jaune sighed once more. "My sisters not going to like this. But..." he lifted his head to offer a small smile to Ruby. "I'll visit as much as possible, count on it."

"Just throwing this out." Carter began, causing him to turn around. "I've gotten the chance to speak to your sister between repairs."

"You have ma'am?" Jaune raised a brow.

"Eliane worked out the operations of many of our key systems in a morning, and she's already sending me data for improvements. Brilliant doesn't begin to cover it." she explained, a small smile creasing her expression.

"Wait, are we talking about a different person?" Weiss spoke up with a frown.

"You're talking about the woman who badmouthed her own brother after going four years without seeing him." Yang frowned as well, with Ruby joining her.

"Arc's sister, right?" the woman checked. "As a test I gave her the schematics for a basic Goa'uld shield generator, and in two hours she doubled its power output at half again its efficiency. I'm going to make a recommendation to hire Eliane as a contractor."

"Carter, why are you taking in stray cats?" O'Neill warned, both eyes twitching now.

"With her expertises sir, I'd hardly label her a stray." she defended.

Pyrrha sighed. "Well, looks like you're going to be seeing your sister a lot after all."

Jaune had to use a hand to force his mouth shut, the young man looking like he was about to get an aneurysm. Earning a pat on the back from Nora, his companions chuckled throughout it all.

"Well if you kids need training I can help." Qrow shrugged after the break in tension. "I've gathered Stargate Command does a lot of exploration work, and I know a few things about wilderness survival." he offered. Mere seconds later O'Neill laid both hands on his face, letting out a hissing breath through the gaps in his fingers.

Ruby took another breath, mustering a smile. She smiled at her friends, the fellow team she befriended and the team she could no longer lead, her father and uncle, and the strange people she could trust. The future loomed hard in front of her, an impossible barrier she couldn't predict, what she doubted anyone could do. What would happen to her world, her friends, and herself was something she could only imagine. But she was optimistic. They had overcome every trial so far, so why not this one?

Sighing to herself, Ruby Rose decided it would have to do. The future would come with all its promise and danger, she would face all its offerings with her friends at her side.


	37. A New Age

_One year later..._

The night sky, a mere ten minutes ago unblemished by so much as a single cloud, was lit up once again. White light flashed from the heavens above, reaching downwards to the unassuming ground.

For several seconds the light would return, accomplished what the rapidly moving source desired, and then subsequently vanish. There was no discernible pattern to the display, unlike the streams of orange fireflies which inevitably chased after the cause. All the while, the air was filled with a cacophony of noises; the high pitched whine of the three intruders, the chattering of machine guns, and dozens upon dozens of voices screaming in panic. It was a hellish sight to behold.

A lone human crashed out of underbrush in a sprint, sweeping his P90 to and fro to match his scrunched up expression. His breath left in rapid pants, the instinctual response to danger joining with his exertions to wring as much air out of his lungs as possible. However, he clearly did not let the fear consume him; his actions were rapid yet controlled, honed reflexes keeping a semblance of order to his movements. Training drilled into him years ago guided the man, and he trusted it with all his being.

When he detected something in the corner of his vision, he swept around, not hesitating to fire a burst at... _something_. Were it either day or an open clearing he might've been able to identify the formless shape moving between the foliage, but in these dark woodlands he was left almost blind. Another gust turned him towards a second shape, watching it seemingly melt from his sight. A muffled curse left the man's lips.

"Cmon, where are you." he muttered, tuning out the fires, the screams, and his crackling radio. He knew where it was, he just had to-

 _Crack_.

The man whipped around, but he was too late to react; a great weight slammed into him at high speed, driving him to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Reflexes made him thrash when powerful grips enclosed around his forearms, forcing the gun away from his attacker, all while the creature used its weight to pin him in place. His own raspy breath competed with the enemy, creating a pair of unsynchronized gasps as they struggled.

"Sheppard, Sheppard!" he finally registered the voice, stopping his squirming to make his attacker go still. He blinked once.

"Wait..." he went in puzzlement, letting out a groan when the man rolled off him to rise to his feet. Though he was panting himself, his attacker stuck out a hand to grasp, which nearly effortlessly yanked him to his feet.

"You okay?" he asked, sweeping his head around even as he spoke.

More cracking twigs caused both men to jerk around, one raising his P90 to take aim, and the other drawing a curved sword from his back. Both men tensed at seeing a hazy shape form right in front of them, swirling in tricky patterns even as it stalked them. But when another object, this one very solid, very real, stomped through the display, they paused in wary anticipation.

"They're not really there." declared a female voice, her commanding tone breaking through the fog of confusion. Without so much as a sideways glance she backhanded another roiling mass of shadows, dispersing the apparition at once.

"What the hell..." mumbled the sword wielding man, sweeping his head around for stragglers.

"Teyla-" the P90 armed man began, starting to lower his weapon until a fresh noise tore through the air. Immediately he snapped it skywards, the barrel tracking a purplish object shaped like a dart as it flew overhead. Left in its wake was a buzz like scream that made his skin crawl.

"We have to go." Qrow Brawen said, grabbing his newest companion's arm to snap him out of his haze.

"He's right, now come!" snapped Teyla Emmagan, furiously gesturing for them to move.

With an irritated sigh, John Sheppard took off in a light jog through the forest. "Just gets better and better."

The USAF Major was distinctly unhappy; a nice jaunt had turned into a surprise attack, the tea he was so generously offered was probably trampled underfoot in the panic, a lot of people were at risk of drowning less than an hour after making the discovery of the century, and although he was very fit for a helicopter pilot, these two civilians were easily outpacing him. It was a kick to his pride, almost as bad as being physically slapped around.

"Those things are Wraith?" Qrow checked with a pant. The SGC contractor expertly moved through the underbrush like he was born there, and from what little Sheppard had gathered about the man, he quite possibly was.

"They are." Teyla confirmed, sparing a skywards glance. "Their timing is unfortunate, but we should be able to get away." she decided. He thought he saw a wince from the easygoing Huntsman he met the day they departed, but in the weak light he couldn't be sure.

A slash from Qrow's sword removed a branch, letting the impromptu trio to dash into a small clearing. They made it a mere six paces before the whine returned, swiftly rising in volume from behind the tiny group. Sheppard made the mistake of glancing back, feeling a stab of pain in his irises at the bright pane of light which appeared five meters from his feet. There wasn't time to react, only enough to discover it was trailing just away from him.

He barely heard a shout before the whine overtook them, then he tripped. Sheppard crashed into the ground with someone landing beside him, gritting his teeth when the sound tapered off. He pushed his head up to check around, calling out, "Telya?"

"She's gone." Qrow said softly, using his hands to help get back up. This time Sheppard didn't need the assistance to stand.

"That thing took her." he said; it was a statement of fact, not a question. The Huntsman nodded wearily.

An explosion grabbed both men's attentions, though it was quite a distance away based on the sound. Sighing, Sheppard needed a second to notice the screaming craft, "Darts" as Telya described them, had vanished, taking that awful noise and those strange lights with them. The Major knew things were bad just by glancing back to the camp, the only question was how bad. He had the sinking feeling the answer was "a lot."

When his radio crackled he was on it instantly. " _Gates turning on, two bandits inbound._ "

"Hold your fire Lieutenant, they got friendlies on board." Sheppard barked, exchanging a look with Qrow before they took off in a jog. "Listen to me, get your eyes on the Dialing device, and you burn those symbols into your mind. Don't forget any of them."

" _Roger_." went the crisp yet unmistakably displeased voice.

"Cmon, let's go." Sheppard urged him on, even though he was purposely matching the Major's jog.

Qrow smelled the smoke before the men crested the hill, the Huntsman slowing just a little when he saw a burning wreck spread all over the field. Just hours ago he was feeling the most bizarre sense of Deja Vu, walking around the nomadic camp and experiencing an all too familiar vibe from the place. The chatter from people, the smells of cooked game, an open campfire where members from all over came to relax, everything. His senses were filled by the input, recalling a life he left behind so long ago.

And now, debris was littered everywhere that he could see, much of it burning strange colors where it fell. The tents were either crushed or collapsed, and smaller fires were beginning to spread. Scattered clumps of people were filtering back, weary now that the panic had left them. To his eyes this had every hallmark of a bandit raid, a mission to cause as much pain and destruction in as short of a time as possible. Fear tainted the air, which meant only one thing.

Just as Qrow started to scan the forest, he mentally kicked himself.

"Right, cmon." he tapped on his forehead, then he frowned. The illusions proved the forest wasn't a safe place either; just because this place had never known the Grimm didn't mean he could get sloppy.

But the sight of Athosians and Expedition troopers regrouping knocked the sense back into him. There were always wounded after raids, something he knew how to handle. Seeing a fur clad old man supported by a wounded Marine changed his course, swiftly coming up to take the groaning man's burden with a grateful wave. He picked a hunk of metal debris to sit the old man down on, grabbing his kit while he methodically checked him over.

In the meantime Sheppard marched up to a familiar face, the grimacing Marine turning from a rapidly leaving subordinate to acknowledge the Major. Who was now the remaining superior officer, as he noted unhappily.

"Bates, what happened?" he began without preamble.

The Marine suppressed a wince, favoring one leg. "Bandits all around us, we couldn't get a bead on 'em. Colonel Sumner ordered us to ignore them and focus on the fliers."

"Where's he?" he questioned, though he knew the answer already.

"Captured, along with two of our own and at least a couple dozen Athosians." Bates reported sourly, grimacing as the Major's expression sank.

Another sigh proceeded Sheppard gazing over the wreckage, trying to cheer himself up. "Got one at least."

"Not from us actually." Bates said, immediately getting him to snap over. "I tried shooting it down, but the damn thing dodged my missile at the last second." he corrected, flashing something akin to indignation.

"Wait." Sheppard raised a hand, gesturing to the debris. "Then how'd you-"

A resounding _clang_ caught their attentions, the heads of the two men swiveling over. Before their eyes a hunk of plating was flipped aside, exposing what looked like a severed arm to open air. Sickly pale skin coated the limb, ending in five digits topped by short claws, while nothing above the bicep remained. And yet, it was _moving_. Crawling away from the wreck like a wounded beast, the thing was unnervingly making a beeline towards the humans, pulling itself along in single minded determination.

Until a long blade skewered the arm.

As they watched mutedly, the last minute addition to their hasty mission lifted the squirming limb to the firelight, letting her glowing eyes examine the thing while she rotated her sword. The arm feebly struggled, trying to reach towards its captor to no avail.

"Don't tell me." Sheppard said with a frown, pointing a single finger.

"Yes sir. Don't ask me how." Bates replied softly.

Grabbing the limb to stuff into a satchel, the woman swiftly closed in on the pair. Though a hood obscured her face, they could easily see the thinly veiled contempt she now sported. The woman took a long look at the wreckage, or Sheppard could rather, as a sideways glance informed him Bates wandered off to help the people. He was left alone when she stopped a body's length away.

"Major Sheppard." Eliane Arc greeted, somehow making a dry greet sound vaguely disgusted by his mere presence. "I advise we take the debris back with us."

"Sure, just one thing." he frowned, pointedly looking towards the crashed flyer.

"Yes, I took this Dart down." she nodded. "Streamlined, built with little armor and weapon capacity however; It's air superiority leave much to be desired."

"Great work. Now how?" he flopped his arms expectantly.

Sheppard knew an irritated huff when he saw one. "I suspect it was already damaged by the soldiers' gunfire, and my shot was quite lucky. I doubt I'll be able to repeat such an act."

"Okay, just to make sure. You. Killed an alien ship. With a bow and arrow." he said simply, hands gesturing as he spoke. His heart cried luck, but his gut disagreed.

With a heavy sigh Qrow gave the old man a pat on the shoulder, and moved on to a woman clutching her arm. Though he was grimacing, he knew what had to be done.

"Sheppard." he called out, rescuing him from the blonde's gaze. Spoken highly of by General O'Neill or not, she was by far the single worst conversationalist Qrow had ever met. The fact she was simultaneously attractive yet so unpleasant to interact with made him want to weep, despairing at the unfairness of this cruel universe.

But right now, he needed to focus. The Major coming up to him was just the thing he needed to get his head in the game.

"What's up?" Sheppard checked, soundlessly handing over his first aid kit when he reached over his shoulder.

Setting a makeshift sling, Qrow sighed once more. "We should take these people back to Atlantis with us."

"Was thinking the same thing, but Weir's not gonna be happy." he replied.

"She's gonna be even less happy when we tell her about the Wraith. " Qrow said back, mumbling assurances when the woman gasped. "Either way, we need to work on getting the kidnapped people back."

"You read my mind." Sheppard agreed. A frontal assault wouldn't do much with their manpower. However, this shot down ship of theirs might be a ticket in. He turned to the woman that moved over to pick up pieces of the wreckage and asked, "Can we use it?"

"Depends on your objective Major." her tone never left the same dull echo of mocking disgust. Eyes continued glowing under her hood before she continued. "This is not Goa'uld, Nox, Tau'ri, or Asgard technology. Reverse engineering may take upwards to ten hours."

"Just for us to use it as in-" he lead his statement on for the blonde to pick up, ignoring the almost crazy estimate of her abilities. Mckay back at Atlantis would've had a fit.

"Not long." she replied, flipping what must have been the nose.

Sheppard nodded at her response, and turned back to Qrow to suddenly ask. "Say, how are you holding up?"

Patting on the woman to signal she was good, Qrow moved to the next impromptu patient his limited medical skills could treat. He pondered long and hard on his answer, and when he spoke he was nearly silent.

"These Wraith things, I think I'm gonna give 'em the Grimm treatment." he replied.

"Meaning?" Sheppard frowned.

Qrow leaned over his shoulder, jostling the freshly repaired sword on his back. "Meaning I'm gonna kill them all."

...

00000

...

Ruby inhaled deeply, taking in the brisk winter air. The chilled breeze gently caressed her face, and she slowly let the breath out as a drawn out sigh. Her eyes were closed, surrendering her sight for now in favor of listening to all of the many ambient noises she could detect; the newest tower of Beacon was a little distance from the main academy grounds, but not far enough so she couldn't hear voices, and the occasional pings of weapons impacting one another. It was peaceful.

"Yo Ruby!"

Opening her eyes, Ruby Rose sighed as she closed her suite's window, turning to face the speaker. Her skirt swished with her movements, the fabric ghosting over the slacks she wore underneath, all while her shortsleeved blouse rustled slightly with her walking. To the girl standing near the door, she gave a nod.

"They're here?" she asked, making her way across the living room. It wasn't a large space by any means; bigger than her former dorm room yet smaller than her old home, the suite was only sparsely filled by plain furniture. Although she had her own maid to tend the place, she preferred to clean it herself as much as she could.

Standing with one fully healed hand on her hip, Yang grinned enthusiastically. The blonde was still clad in the thick shirt and jeans she arrived in, minus the longcoat and aviator shades she took a liking to.

"About time." Her sister said right as the door swung open, admitting two arrivals into one of the most secure locations in Vale.

"Hey!" Ruby swiftly closed the distance to unleash a hug upon the first arrival, barely through the entrance before she was grabbed. A moment of startled silence proceeded a chuckle, the taller woman returning the gesture.

Blake let go, her own pale longcoat quite thick by Ruby's estimate; with snow blanketing the region, it was a good precaution. Now freed, the faunus laid a greeting smile upon her friend. "Hey, good to see you."

The sound of Weiss stifling a laugh caused Ruby to switch her attention, letting her see the pale woman's fashionably white jacket and skirt, adding to her finely tended hairstyle to create a near regal appearance. Said appearance didn't hesitate to join in her in a hug as well, both girls squeezing tightly.

"You're late." Yang noted with a muffled chuckle once Ruby let go, making both newcomers sigh dramatically.

"Blame the new security guard." Blake explained dryly, rolling her eyes. "Apparently a VIP identification card is grounds for an inspection now."

"Um, sorry, I'll talk to somebody about that." Ruby apologized, perking up when she waved her off.

"How's your fever?" Weiss frowned a little, cocking her head to the side.

"Been gone for a few days now. My system was juiced up with that tretonin stuff yesterday, so I'll be alright for a week at least. " she dismissed quickly, gesturing towards her kitchen. "Anyway, who wants tea?"

Five minutes later and all four friends had flopped onto the spacious couch, the red toned owner of this place flicking on her television for some background noise. Conversation flowed naturally between the women, sipping on their fresh tea while they caught up. Not one possessed a weapon (the price of admission into this special place), but that was alright for now.

"So, its official." Weiss proclaimed with visible pride, grinning as she set her cup on the coffee table. "Winter's been selected as the Captain of the _RDF_ _Atlas_."

"Congratulations." Ruby went brightly, pumping a fist while Blake and Yang gave a few celebratory claps.

She nodded with a smile. "They're gonna announce it in a couple days. You should've seen her, my sister almost cried when she found out. My father, well." she rolled her eyes. "Watching him fume helplessly makes my day every time."

"I'm happy for her. But while you're all here." Blake finished her cup before setting it down. "I have some big news of my own."

"Hit me." Yang challenged, leaning back as one arm hanged over the back of the couch. Her fingers idly twitched while she relaxed; the difference in skin tone from her forearms to her hands was hardly noticeable anymore.

Blake took a deep breath. "The Vale Council has officially asked the Black Fang to join the newest colony drive."

"You're kidding." Weiss got out first, gawking. The faunus nodded, smiling sheepishly.

"That's great!" Ruby said, almost bouncing in her seat.

"Don't get me wrong, everybody knows its politics." Blake raised a hand. "The White Fang splinters raised a huge outcry when the world council announced a lottery for _Second Chance_ , so they figured recruiting a ton of people from the new faunus rights organization should keep people happy." she explained, leaning back into the couch. "Of course, a lot of folk in the Black Fang aren't happy about this either. I've gotten so many complaints for it already."

"If you ever get sick of running that joint, you should come with me to Signal. The job's fun and the pays good." Yang proclaimed bemusedly.

Despite her grim tone, a small smile graced her features. "They asked me if I wanted to go."

"Wait, really?" Ruby shot forward, laying a wide eyed look on her.

"I turned them down. I did consider the offer, believe me." Blake glanced to the ceiling. "It's just... I dunno. But if I took up the offer, it'd mean I couldn't stop by here anymore."

"Just to make sure, they're gating to the planet?" Weiss checked, earning a nod.

"Ugh, gate travel." Yang wrinkled her nose.

Blake protested. "Its not that bad."

"Still creeps me out." Ruby added with her own frown. "But I guess if you do it long enough."

"It doesn't take that long. Dealing with the screening process is harder than getting used to the travel method." Weiss defended.

"That reminds me actually, how'd the Hebridan trip go?" the faunus asked quizzically.

"I didn't get to see too much of the place, such is life as a diplomat's assistant. But what I did, just, wow." Weiss shook her head at the memory. "If I could, I'd take all of you there. Words and pictures don't do the place justice."

Ruby nodded while she spared a glance at her far wall, the only spot she put effort into decorating. On the open surface sat dozens of framed pictures of varying sizes, along with plenty of room for more. The very existence of this wall made her security detail go ballistic when they found out, but she shut down any argument that tried to remove them. Only once had someone tried to take them down without her knowledge; they learned the hard way why it was unwise to anger the Fall Maiden.

She drifted over the preserved memories, recalling the tales behind the many pictures: a freeze frame of the Mistrali Vytal Festival where her friends in Team VERE competed, a snapshot of the anniversary of Beacon's survival in Vale, Yang posing with her provisional teaching license in hand, Blake standing alongside her parents with Menagerie's new CCT Tower in the background, Taiyang's alarmed face when he tried the first commercial flight to orbit, Weiss taking a selfie on a world called Langara, an annoyed Faramir in a lab while he instructed scientists in Dust secrets, Uncle Qrow waving back in front of an active Stargate before he left for the adventure of a lifetime, and so many more.

But one made her linger, set beside a hanged up Crescent Rose: eight faces shoved into a single cramped frame, squeezed together so they were mashed against each other, yet all had enormous smiles plastered on their expressions. Yang, Nora, Pyrrha, Weiss, Blake, Ren, Jaune, and herself; an impromptu group photo the day JNPR departed for Earth. In that frozen moment she remembered the disappointment, the worry that she would never see them again this time. But she remembered the resolve as well, the drive to make the most of their limited time. While she was locked in this gilded cage, they stepped out to face a frightening universe.

It took her a second to realize her team had gone silent. Letting out a quiet breath, she turned her head to find her friends staring at her.

"You miss them?" Weiss asked first.

"Yeah." she decided to agree, her head falling back.

"Me too." Blake said, turning her golden eyes upwards.

Yang smiled, joining her in staring at the ceiling. Weiss let her head fall back as well, looking at the single most distinctive part of her suite.

Stretching from corner to corner was a single massive painting. On this painting were stars, so many endless stars beyond her ability to count. At a single glance it seemed random, but a closer look revealed recognizable patterns of stellar constellations, forming a snapshot of a section of space. The two lights were incorporated into the painting, one modeled after shattered moon, the other as a very special star. Even though she knew better, Ruby could almost convince herself she was staring at the night sky.

"Think they're doing okay?" she voiced.

"They are. I know it." Weiss said quietly.

"Who knows, JNPR's probably saving the day somewhere." Blake half joked.

"Nah, that's my job." Yang waved off. "Odds say they're poking around some backwater looking for rocks."

Ruby smiled softly. In that moment she didn't think of the terrible curse she willingly took, nor the old familiar stab of envy she felt whenever she thought of their freedom. She made her choice, they all did. Closing her eyes, she thought of how much things had changed; every day there were new discoveries, new tales of greatness, new hope. Grimm attacks continued of course, but the rate was the lowest in recorded history. A part of her was a little frightened at all the changes, but she dismissed those worries. The future was looking brighter and brighter with each passing day.

Things would be alright, she was sure of it.

...

00000

...

In the skies above Dakara, lights flashed and winked in a dazzling show. The beauty of this event was due to a rare artificial phenomena known as the single largest space battle in thousands of years; hundreds of Hatak motherships belonging to the System Lord Baal, the total sum of his fleet, clashed with an even greater number of Replicator infested vessels over the planet's surface. Plasma bolts filled the void as the pyramidal ships traded gigatons of firepower, trying to maneuver for any relief from the withering destruction.

Both Replicator and Goa'uld desired one thing: control of an ancient temple, and the hidden Superweapon buried under its hallowed foundations.

Far below the last of the Free Jaffa defenders were driven into the temple's inner sanctum, utilizing sacred buildings dating back eons as hasty defenses. Every remaining entrance was packed with warriors, each group manning a host of weapons: Staffs, Cannons, P90s, M16s, Kalashnikovs, even a handful of RPG-7s were carried by the wary rebels. Although extreme in quantity, the firepower was certainly warranted.

At the primary temple entrance, the Jaffa tensed when the clanging of heavy footfalls echoed in, as if to announce the arrival of their dreaded foes: the Kull warriors. Coated in impenetrable black armor and sporting fast firing Staff repeaters, these fearless abominations were as lethal as they were mindlessly loyal to their god, Anubis. One would be a match for a score of the best Jaffa; over a dozen entered the chamber, their fearsome masks turned upon their newest victims, all that remained between them and the Superweapon's control systems.

One Kull led the way for the rest, steadily marching forward as it raised a wrist mounted weapon. But before it could fire, the drone came under an unexpected counter assault.

Without warning a hail gunfire pinged off the Kull's jerking body. The stunned drone swatted at the supersonic projectiles as ice started to cake its armor, leaving an opening for a lightning fast figure to race up, waiting until he was a meter away to leap onto the super soldier. Mid jump he brought up a pair of bladed pistols to drive into the drone's neck, Stormflower's unbreakable blades puncturing the thinner lining to sever the drone's spinal cord. Just as the Kull went limp, Lie Ren yanked his weapons out to pour fire into its counterparts.

The next Kull raised its weapon to the human, unaware of a javelin coming towards it until the sharp end pierced its side, spearing the creature's heart milliseconds later. Another Kull nearby saw its counterpart's demise, only realizing it was under attack when the flat edge of a shield bashed it in the chest; normally too bulky to be affected by melee attacks, the power behind this blow was enough to stagger the creature. The redheaded woman threw a hand out, and Miló obediently flew out of its previous victim and into the next, while Akoúo deflected a hasty swat as it died. With another one down, Pyrrha Nikos whipped around to lift her shield overhead, feeling a weight jump on top. A grunt left her as she pushed with all her strength.

Launched from the shield, a ball of laughter and metal summersaulted twice before the orange haired girl twisted around, bringing the head of her beloved hammer down right in front of a trio of Kulls; the concussive impact rolled out in a wave, knocking all three flailing drones onto their backs. They were easy prey for her to crush one after another, with the last being flattened by a chunk of falling ceiling. Sniggering to herself, Nora Valkyrie switched Magnhild to its grenade launcher form to fire into another cluster of foes.

Just as the explosive boomed into the enclosed space, an outlying Kull was slain when a gleaming sword took its head from its shoulders. The next by chance was far enough away to react, becoming the first to fire its Staff repeater into the charging human. But instead of dying like he should've, he flung a silver shield, proudly bearing a bronze emblem in the center, between him and the Kull. The hot plasma splashed harmlessly off the barrier, the owner letting out a shout as he thrusted his blade forward. With two slices Jaune Arc carved open the drone, finishing it off with a backwards stab into the throat.

Panting and grinning, Jaune heard his teammates jog to the mouth of the temple entrance, all of them mustering at his flanks. Left in their wake were twelve bodies of the most fearsome creations of Anubis, slain in under thirty seconds. He knew it may have been more prudent to regroup further inside, but the collateral damage to the temple wouldn't endear them to the Jaffa, never mind the silent glaring from Teal'c. Carter would likewise look upon them poorly, but fortunately the Colonel was still busy on her task deep inside.

"Ah, that was fun. We gotta do this more often." Nora commented happily, resting her hammer on her shoulders.

"My last kill was a little sloppy." Ren said, cracking his neck as he reloaded.

"Mine too." Pyrrha agreed as she rolled her shoulders, jostling her javelin and shield.

"Its okay, don't think anyone will notice." Jaune waved his shield as he caught his breath, wiping his brow with a green sleeve; between the sweltering heat and the fighting over the past day, he sorely needed a shower. The others were in a similar state, sporting several new dark patches on their uniforms. "Now we wait for the next wave of drones, Anubis can't have many left."

He would've said more, but right then he heard a humming sound from outside. Frowning in concern, Jaune led the others to the temple's entrance to peer outside; the open field with the stargate on the other side had a new addition parked in the center, a weird disc shaped craft he never saw before landing on several struts. The fifteen meter wide ship wasn't a Goa'uld lander, nor of any other type he was familiar with. When the front cracked open, he got his answer as to who owned this vessel.

From the yawning darkness crawled a clicking horde of silvery bugs, hundreds strong and increasing exponentially. Though he was too far to see for sure, he knew the six limbed insects were purely mechanical, made up of simplistic yet incredibly versatile blocks. In the time it took for him to blink, hundreds transformed into thousands, streaming towards the temple in a chattering tide.

Replicators.

"Uh oh."

Nora, Pyrrha, and Jaune all turned to Ren, who blankly exchanged looks with his teammates.

"Ren, you know I don't like it when you do that." The orange haired girl admonished irritably.

"There's a million robot bugs coming for us, I think I'm allowed to say it." The sable haired young man defended.

Sighing at their antics, the redhead glanced towards the blonde. To her lover, her friend, and her leader, she spared a wry smile. "What do we do Jaune?"

Sighing to himself, the newly minted 2nd Lieutenant of SG-25 (known to the base by the moniker of JNPR), replaced his sword to his belt. It took seconds for his companions, three people he could rely on like no one else in the universe, to sling away their nonstandard weaponry, and in unison, unclip their P90s from their slings. Nora grinned, then Ren sighed resignedly, and lastly Pyrrha gave him that half smile he loved to think about so much.

Jaune huffed, then he smiled too. "We hold this spot, come hell or high water. Together."

Raising their weapons, JNPR opened fire on the encroaching Replicator swarm.

...

00000

...

 **A/N: Well everyone, this is it. This is the end of Not What You Expected. Suppose I should give some closing thoughts, right?**

 **There's quite a bit about this story I liked, but a lot more I didn't. There's a few plot ideas I wish I got the chance to explore more: the Ruby-OC team dynamic, SG-1 interactions with Remnant, doing more with Cinder, extra information about the others' cover identities, peeks into John Smith's experiences with the madness before blowing himself up, insights into Jaune's and Pyrrha's hidden relationship, extra time on Earth, and so much more. Also, Jack and Qrow. If I did slash pairings, those two would be hooked up in the time it took to say "Fer crying out loud!"**

 _ **B/N: I really wanted Ruby to start calling him 'Uncle Jack'. Would have been funny.**_

 **A/N: There's a few ideas that shouldn't have gotten the detail they did, namely Eliane Arc. Looking back, I feel like I could've deleted upwards of thirty thousand words just by cutting this character (I wouldn't have by the way, I asked KisaragiKei for an OC and this is what he gave me), even if she was fun to write. Which by the way, some word of god since no one seemed to have caught it: Eliane has undiagnosed autism. It wasn't that subtle, was it?**

 _ **B/N: Aaaaand she's supposed to be Remnant's version of Mckay/Carter. Wooosh, over your heads about her situation, add some Savantism with a pinch of Einstein syndrome with a few other things... and Remnant not caring about psychology as much as Earth and we got this. Their ticket to advanced technology, ala Aaaaanime~ But hey, she's with the Atlantis Expedition now, hopefully she and Qrow can keep them together enough not to cross some metaphorical lines. And Qrow lamented on the cruelty of the universe, pfffffft. We made jokes on Mckay hitting on her and all she does is hide behind Carter, or just shoves lemonade in his face. So much shit was going on, and half the time, you wondered about alot of others things too.**_

 **A/N: And BROM? OCs, in a manner of speaking, but technically not. Its complicated. Either way, more efforts to distinguish them would've been nice to have.**

 **I'll just say it now: the fic has errors. A lot of them. Some are due to ignorance on my part (Sergeants in the US Military are not referred to as Sir, thanks aznxa21), others by plot necessity. I know it'd be next to impossible for JNPR to join the USAF as they did here, even with as fast and loose the SGC handles the rules. I hinted Kinsey was the cause behind it, but the 'how' I intentionally left vague thanks to the handwaving I'd have to use. Anyway, I'll just say I made a lot of mistakes here, both in information and grammar. I take responsibility for them all.**

 **I left quite a few semi-obvious references scattered around the fic, namely Washington and Carolina; those two were lifted from Red vs Blue, reimagined as SGC personnel. Colonel Sergi Kozak is a direct reference to Sokol of Payday 2, a Russian heister with the titular gang. Captain Sobieski is of course named for Jan Sobieski, the Polish nobleman famous for relieving the Siege of Vienna in 1683.** _ **When the Winged Hussars**_ **-oh, sorry, that just slipped out. In my defense, Sabaton is its own justification. Last I'll mention (but certainly far from all), Anansi is an important figure in West African folklore, taking the form of a spider who acts like a man. DragoonSensei nailed the idea of the great story keeper, excellent work.**

 **Then there's some unused plot ideas, like... actually, you know what? Forget it, no one cares about reminisced what ifs. Anywho, time for some text based handshakes. Or more creative shakes if you know what I mean, hehehe...**

 **First billing goes to Monty Oum, and by extension Rooster Teeth for creating RWBY. You guys took some half baked scribblings and turned them into a popular show spanning six volumes at the time of this writing. It has its ups and downs, but overall RWBY is a fun watch.**

 **Next, MGM for Stargate. What began as a simple project that was essentially Star Trek TNG rebooted, turned into 10 seasons and two spinoffs of Win. Not without its flaws either, but one hell of a show if I do say so myself.**

 **On the writing side, first and foremost, KisaragiKei. Without him, this story would be a confused pile of crappy back and forth grammar mistakes. This may sound like I'm fellating the guy, but I'm really not. Its thanks to him that my writing quality has gone up as much as it has. I'm still squarely average, but now its mid average rather than low. Hats off to the guy!**

 _ **B/N: Nah, I don't believe that. Counter, Counter, Riposte. At least you complete your writing works...**_

 **A/N: GeneralAllenWalker next, for being a devoted reader, idea bouncing, and a good friend.**

 **Major Simi, because FIRST! Haha, but seriously, you were the very first to put a favorite on Not What You Expected way back in January of 2017, you've stuck around for the months and months this fic has meandered on, and with the sole exception of Chapter 13 (which was and will forever remain utter shit) dropped a review on every chapter.**

 **Acidika, who despite not caring for either half of this crossover, was still willing to hear my ideas and offer input. Thanks man.**

 **fistermunker, who once gave me an extensive riff which got me to rewrite the entire fic at the time, and changed how I approach chapter construction. Sucks you fell off the map, but hey, shoutout for you.**

 **Scouttroop, whom I once asked to publish this fic as his own, since I was nervous about how it would be received. I'm still sorry I ended up jumping the gun, but thanks.**

 **Now for everyone who put a favorite on the fic, which includes... oh. Ooh kay... sigh, deep breath.**

 **AGreasySausage, A Rabid Pie, Admiral Fatass, AgentDylanWashington, Andy-025, Anime-Niakz, AnonymousInsomnia, Apsody243, Ariel Schnee, Armiture, Artemis-Ikana, Blessings of Babylon, Blockhead64, BoredZero, Burny McPyro, Captaindrake123, Captiosus, Ceridwen692, Choosy, ChronoHyperion, CrazedGammaMan1721, Discordant Rose, DoreanBV, DragoonSensei, FORD B, Fan1one, Fhane, FlashDevil, FrostingFlames, Geezuz, General Bubbles, GeneralConstantineIIofGreece, Ghost of Los Angeles, Gungrave Company, H-PockySticks, Helljumper206, High Lord Azal, Indecisive Bob, InternetTroll, Irishman1993, IsThisNameTakenAlready, Jim Ohki, Kaiju Alpha, Kampfkuschler, Kevin Reid, KoalaKiller, Loknload1, Lone Rebel, LordAndreius, Lord Anime, Lord Scoro, LtdFox, Mad Library Scientist, Miles-de-Mors, Miron, N8iV, NaturalPhilosopher, NavySEAL4, Nexus Gundam, Patsmckraken, Perseus12, PhaseHand, Proxima 9, Raider Echo Four Quebec, ReaperOfShadows125, RedRobin457, Reglor, Revenant Pilot, Rubin34, Sechs, Sgt117, ShadowKitty896, Shadow Operatives-117, Shadowhawk3938, Shadow of dubois, Solo Wing Dragoon, Sonicwing44 Starwarlord, StillReflections, THEMYSTERYPOTATO, Tek-Lord2, TheCrossOverfan, TheDoctor1998, Timerider, TorstenL, Toy2711, TransientStar, Trekkiezero, Tsiera, Umbra Venator, ValiantPanther, Venom Spirit, WalnutCake, Wilkman3, Xavier Rall, Yugioh and Inuyasha lover, ZetaD20, Zhalo Shadowcell, abbydobbie, ancalagon6913, andthen132456, archive4465, asredwer, ayad.t.h, baberbot1, buonadonna, cheekymanwaffle, couplands, death7559, doomqwer, draco6000, dragonbane522, etunim1, firefoxynk, gundam1, highboom, ilovebullets, inventorread, jch529, jmknz777, joe lama 102, komentator, lordrednight, martin1zouharlom, missmeow1968, ms meow1968, mxlny, nemo1986, ocg123123, paladin3030, pandawa, q743891, rsclaymore, ryukadsgc, snakeyeeees, tobi1989, trixesta, wman243, xKaizer, zadif, and zangetsu. Whew boy, my fingers hurt. Anyway, thanks to everybody who favorited.**

 **Followers... a blanket thanks instead, because** _ **by jove**_ **there's a lot of you.**

 **FireIce90 for... nothing actually. You didn't want to finish the first chapter, why would I thank you?**

 **And lastly you my reader, for getting through the 270k+ words of Not What You Expected. Through the highs and lows, through the slow updates, and my frequent asspulls. To you, here is my gratitude for sticking with me until now.**

 **This is How-Not-To-Do-Something bidding adieu to everybody. See you later, space cowboys.**


	38. Twenty Years Later

**P4X-1723, March 20th, 2025...**

It was a crisp midmorning; Birds were chirping, the bright blue sky had only a couple clouds to mar the horizon, and a rising yellow sun beat down upon the black surface of the Stargate. Stretching away in every direction of the alien device were verdant grasslands, interspersed with copses of rustling trees to manage the flow of wind. Gently brushing over all was a cool breeze, slowly being warmed by the growing light.

To the pair of men waiting a safe distance from the time worn steps, one clad in a USAF battle dress, the other in a durable tunic overlaid by a leather coat, the otherwise picturesque day failed to uplift their grim expressions.

A grinding clank was the only warning for what happened next; the Stargate activated, sending a bloom of energy out before retracting into a shimmering flat surface. The dark skinned Airman didn't react, but the local man, an older fellow with a wispy short beard, reflexively flinched at the display. His surprise was temporary however, and he was composed once more by the time figures began to appear. First one exited the gate in a precise stride, then there were three, and then five.

Concern flitted across both men's faces when the human arrivals continued to come, until a total of twelve had exited the rippling surface. A cursory inspection revealed these newcomers were divided into three distinct groups, two of which took up positions on opposite sides of the path, warily keeping track of their empty surroundings. Almost unnoticed behind them, the Stargate shorted out with an electric crackle.

Although these arrivals were similar to one another in many respects, they were subtly different from each other in several ways. Four men taking the left were clad in MARPAT camouflage, carrying HK416 rifles in clear ready positions as they scanned for threats. But the next quartet moving to the right had lighter toned BDUs, and instead held QBZ-03s in a similar pose as the first group. Stitched on their shoulders was a patch showing a flag for the People's Republic of China in place of the American flags of the first. Both sides' patches however were below a unique badge denoting their allegiance, showing a pyramid shape with a circle above the tip. Most of the men held the same look of guarded blankness save for the scowling Chinese leader.

But while the eight men had their differences, they paled in comparison to the third group making their way down the center.

Whereas the other teams wore helmets from their respective nations, they made do with infantry caps which failed to conceal their vibrant hair colors. The four men had optics affixed to their helmets combining night vision, infrared, and TER derived sensors to defeat phase cloaking, while the third four (evenly split between men and women) had less durable goggles with the same capabilities wrapped around their necks. Their weapons were likewise unusual, made up of rare M5A1 carbines, derived from a weapon dubbed the Carter Special by its creator. All were clad in USAF BDUs in the same manner as the awaiting man, their vests loaded with all manner of equipment, from spare magazines to handheld sensor devices.

What drew the eye most wasn't this team's off kilter appearance, but the most assuredly nonstandard weapons they carried. One had a pair of green painted bladed pistols holstered to his thighs, another carried a grey and pink compact grenade launcher slung over her back, while the next possessed a small bronze tinted shield over a like colored javelin on her back as well. The last, striding up to the awaiting men, carried a gleaming sword secured by a harness around the back of his waist, which jostled with his footsteps.

The Airman, bearing the pips of a Major, gave him a crisp salute. "Colonel, sir."

"At ease." Returning the gesture, the sword armed Colonel nodded while he switched between the men. "Gentlemen."

Taking a deep breath, the older local stiffened himself under the man's expectant gaze. He noted the Colonel was in his late thirties, blond and blue eyed like a few of his people, but he carried himself like a seasoned woodsman. If not for his outfit and clean shaven face, he would easily assume this man was one of his own.

"Greetings, I am Magistrate Cath. Welcome to Gorosa." he recited carefully, bringing his hands together. "You must be SG-1."

"That's correct Magistrate. Now, I was informed there was an emergency?" the Colonel switched around, for a moment catching Cath off guard at his bluntness.

"Indeed there is. Please, follow me." the local man gestured, turning around to stride off.

Gazing over his shoulder, the Colonel raised a single hand to wave onwards. Mere seconds after he started walking, he heard eleven pairs of feet marching after his controlled pace. A quick peek confirmed the MARSOC SG-3 took the rear of their party, while the PLASOF troops of SG-12 held the center. His own team was at his back, soundlessly exchanging looks with him when he glanced. Meanwhile the lone Major stayed by his side, waiting for a word. A nod was his permission.

"Lot of muscle sir." Major Edward Walsch commented quietly, lifting his left arm to peer; the digital screen on the underside of his forearm sprang to life, a twitch of his finger creating a holographic map a few centimeters above the flexible plexiglass surface. Two gestures transmitted the data to all three teams, the men and women staggering their glances so someone was on the lookout the whole time.

"Blame the International Oversight Council." the Colonel replied in a similar volume (though with a hint of distaste), briefly examining the updated map on his shield arm. "You're a little out of the loop, but the IS8 conference is in a couple days. The Gates already been transported to Geneva, and the SGC is operating out of the Alpha Site."

"Explains why I couldn't dial Earth." he muttered, shaking his head.

"Anyway, the Brass doesn't want any complications right now. Exploration has been suspended for the time being, so General Mitchell can afford to send three teams for one mission. We almost came mounted up too, but we thought it wasn't needed, and it'd probably scare the people." he explained, giving him a curious glance. "How bad is it here?"

"It's more confused than anything sir. Nobody's hurt, but the people here are scared." Walsch explained.

He frowned. "Of what?"

"Wish I knew sir." was his quiet reply, pulling ahead of the rest.

Sighing at the unhelpful answer, thirty eight year old Lt. Colonel Jaune Arc shrugged and picked up the pace.

...

000

...

The natives still kept their settlements within a brisk walk of the stargate after the Goa'uld left this world for a generation. According to their historians, their Lord simply left one day and never returned, and the people were fearful of his retribution should he come back to find them scattered. That didn't stop a few enterprising souls from starting up new communities, several days away from the patchwork of villages near the Gate. Rumors claimed others had gone further than that, exploring places never before seen by human eyes.

Their destination was a village of some two hundred inhabitants, a place that didn't have a single building above two stories tall yet was remarkably clean. According to previous reports, the ruler of this planet made several decrees to keep sanitation to a decent level, meaning diseases were rare and the people reasonably healthy. From what he read about Gorosa, the effort was less concern for the slaves wellbeing, and more to ensure an inconvenient plague didn't cripple a productive holding. He imagined it'd be a different story if the Ori had ever reached this planet.

Although he was interested in learning more about this world, Jaune's immediate concern was right in front of him. Specifically, the entirety of the village's population was in the town square; SG-7 and several burly locals circled the large crowd of fearfully muttering men, women, and children, doing what they could to keep the panic from overtaking the people. Their fear was like a physical thing, almost palpable with how dense it was.

Magistrate Cath kept within eyesight of the crowd, quietly conversing with the SG teams in front of him.

"Alright, just to recap." Jaune held up a free hand, gun hanging by his side. "An hour ago something landed outside of the village and walked off. When a couple men went to investigate, it somehow injured them from afar. That right?"

"Yes. It didn't arrive from the God's Chariot as your people can, but appeared with a crack of thunder." Cath confirmed, grimacing as he brought his hands together. "Please understand Colonel, our people are frightened. Lord Coscar has not been seen for a generation, many of us are fearful we displeased him somehow in his absence."

A quiet breath left the man, coming to a decision. "Which way did this thing go?"

Cath's response was to point in a seemingly random direction, almost opposite that of the Stargate. Jaune brought up his arm mounted display again, aligning the holographic map with the man's directions. When he finished, the Colonel closed the device and nodded.

"Alright then. Magistrate Cath, we're going to investigate this thing. I need you to prepare for an evacuation of this place. Temporarily." he quickly interrupted the man's wince. "Just as a precaution. If its nothing major, then nobody's going anywhere against their will."

Cath grimaced, but he nodded anyway. "I will tell my people."

"Thank you." Jaune said, turning around to jab a finger. "Captain Blackthorne, I want your team to stay here and help with crowd control. If you don't hear from us in ninety minutes, get these people to the Alpha Site."

"Yes sir." Captain Pierce Blackthorne, a thirty five year old Marine from Boston, snapped off a quick salute before he and his team jogged away to assist SG-7.

"Major Hei." he switched to the next man.

"Sir." responded Major Zhao Hei, reining in the worst of his scowl at the moment. The thirty nine year old officer stood at attention alongside his team, yet alone in his quiet displeasure at taking orders from an American. He caught a wince from one of his seasoned teammates at his commander's attitude; not for the first time Jaune wished Hei's much friendlier predecessor hadn't been recalled to his homeland.

"You're coming with us for backup. Let's move" he commanded, starting to walk off in the direction Cath gave him, his three teammates falling in behind him, and the Chinese team a short gap behind. Before they left the town's border, Jaune glanced over his shoulder one more time. "Keep a little distance so we cover more ground. Radio me if you find the bogey."

"Understood." Hei nodded fast, leading the way for the four men to part from their group.

He went quiet after that, leading his team across a rolling plain of fluttering knee high grass. The land around them really was a beautiful sight, especially at this time of year; the reports from previous missions indicated winters in this region (perhaps further) were mercifully short at only a couple months long. One of the reasons this world was formerly a breadbasket for the Goa'uld. But without a Lord to supply, the people here had an overabundance of food with no idea what to do with it. The SGC partially alleviated the issue by arranging for some trade deals, but undoing centuries, if not millennia of slavery wasn't so easy to accomplish.

Though his eyes kept switching from the ground to his surroundings, it was clear the blond's attention was elsewhere. Mainly at the three pairs of eyes boring into his back, no doubt irritated at his attitude. Passing by an old tree, he heard a huff from his side, the cue for them to begin.

"So, does anyone else have a bad feeling about this one?" asked Major Nora Valkyrie, her short hair lightly swishing as she glanced to her friends. The ginger had matured into a beautiful woman, honing her enthusiasm for a good fight into a razor sharp edge. Yet her lack of a smile at the moment was a source of concern.

"Thought it was just me." admitted Captain Pyrrha Nikos with a shrug. The redheaded woman was stunning even in BDUs, though he would be the first to admit he was biased. On Earth they were officially two separate legal entities, but fortunately the US Government didn't recognize many laws from off world; otherwise both of them would be looking at a long overdue court martial. They wouldn't be the only ones, but that was a small consolation. "I sorta wish Mitchell sent the British team with us instead."

"Same." Captain Lie Ren nodded, albeit with a frown. The sable haired man, a few centimeters taller than him, checked on their surroundings to ensure they were alone. Most times taciturn, his own look was cause enough for the blond to worry. "Hei needs some field experience, but he also needs to learn how to work with others first."

Four officers with their level of experience and training shouldn't be on the same team. Jaune knew it, knew they should be split up to either lead their own teams or train new recruits, but he held enough sway to keep them together. More than a few officers (and politicians in the loop) weren't happy with his team, and not just because he was hoarding talent.

"Wish they'd send Xian back, I liked his jokes." Nora said, slumping as she walked.

"I heard a rumor it was something to do with his son, a surgery complication or something." Jaune supplied with a glance over his shoulder.

"That reminds me actually. When you picked the girls up from school, were they doing okay?" Pyrrha turned to Ren for her question, causing the man to shrug.

"Didn't see them much before the _Adenauer_ beamed me up, but they definitely weren't happy when I told them they wouldn't be gating home like I promised." he replied, adjusting his weapon's sling.

"Its a little delay, no biggie. Say, when's the big conference end?" Nora turned her head, directing her question to the one who was most likely to know.

Jaune huffed listlessly. "In three weeks."

"Wait, seriously?" she exclaimed indignantly, creasing her brow.

"They'll miss Beacon's entry." Pyrrha said worriedly.

"I tried to get the girls to the Gate in time, but I couldn't do it." Jaune explained, letting out a sigh. "I even called Carter, but she outright said it's not happening. This comes from the President herself."

"What good is that Chief of Staff chair if she can't use it?" Nora shook her head in disgust.

"I was able to call in a favor though." he continued, though his tone didn't have any enthusiasm. "There's a 304-D heading to Remnant in a day's time, I know its commander. I don't like sending the girls by ship, but those idiots on the Board won't give me five minutes with the Gate."

"It's either that or skip an entire semester." Pyrrha sighed, glancing to Ren once more. "Were they alright at least?"

"Seemed so. I know Harlequin will be excited to travel by starship, you know how she is when it comes to hardware, but Onyx." he trailed off to shake his head.

"What's wrong with Onny?" Nora asked immediately, glancing to him with worry.

"Its, well, I'm not sure. I think she's mad at us." Ren said, idly brushing the lone purple stripe above his eyebrow. "It may be because..."

"Because what?" Pyrrha inquired with a creased brow. Jaune made a check for anything to snag his feet before he too twisted around, joining the women's expectant looks.

"I... did mention..." he glanced away, gulping down a lump.

Nora made a tiny growl. "Ren..."

"...mention there's a chance we won't make it to their Initiation." he finally got out.

Jaune stopped mid step, whipping around just as the others came to a halt. " _You_ _what?_ "

"I told them there's a chance we'll be a no show, not that we're bailing." Ren defended, his own expression scrunched up.

"Why would you tell them that?" Pyrrha snapped; Jaune was quietly relieved the look on her face wasn't directed at him.

Ren sighed again, rolling his shoulders. "It was a precaution. Remember when we missed the Solstice day last year? Better a little disappointment now then a lot later."

"That's no excuse. We promised them we'd make it." Nora butted in, leaning forward with an expression which hinted he would be sleeping on the couch tonight.

"Ren, there's nothing else on the schedule for the next month. Once this missions wrapped up, we'll be free to head home for the next three weeks." Jaune said, brow narrowed at him. "I'm telling you, in five days we'll be hugging the girls while they're boarding-"

" _One Niner, come in._ "

In the blink of an eye his demeanor switched, all four clicking their headset radios. "Copy One Two, what do you got?"

" _We have eyes on a bogey two zero meters from our position, heading due Northwest. Marking._ " his arm display flashed a second later, the map showing two sets of icons.

"Roger One Two, do not engage." Jaune commanded, all four of them turning to the indicated direction to sprint. "Wait for us to reach you. One Niner out."

They evidently spent more time talking than he thought, for SG-12 had gained a half kilometer's distance over rough terrain. The four crossed that span in under a minute at a brisk sprint, tuning out the pleasant day or the hills they were moving across, until Jaune spotted a lookout. A jerk of his head changed their course, closing in on their location.

He slowed when he saw the rest of the Chinese team near the crest of a rocky hill, ducking down so they weren't visible over the top. Major Hei was crouched down behind a rock with his team spread out yet remaining in sight, twisting himself around when he heard the newcomers join them. His rifle twitched their way, but not so much to be threatening. For a couple seconds his brow was raised, glancing back and forth from him and the way they came.

Landing on a knee beside the Major, Jaune affixed an expectant look upon him. "What do we got?"

"One bogey, Ming spotted it a couple minutes ago." Hei explained lowly, nodding to one of his men nearby.

"Numbers?" Jaune probed, sparing a look at the hilltop.

"Just one. Don't think it saw us." he replied, moving further up the hill in a squat that transitioned to him going prone. Jaune was a couple steps behind the man, and the others were a similar distance from him. A quick peek back showed both teams readying their weapons, with Pyrrha drawing her javelin to transform it into its rifle form, ignoring a strange look from one of the SG-12 members.

Crawling on his stomach, the blond kept his head low until he was right at the top of the hill. Once he was able to look beyond the natural barrier, he took in details; the terrain around here was hilly, covered in grass and rocky outcrops. A natural pathway bent and twisted between the stout hills, the grass downtrodden from countless feet over the years. Perhaps it was an imported species like the humans here, or it could've been a native creature that arose from this world's terraforming ages ago. Either way, there was a visible trail at the base of the hill.

And just as Hei said, there was a single figure in ivory colored robes on the path unknowingly walking away from them.

"Orders?" the Major questioned softly, leveling an unidentifiable look upon him.

Jaune took a deep breath, running different scenarios in his head. He decided what he was going to do the moment Cath explained the situation, there was only the matter of approaching this matter. Something he knew full well would not be received well by the others.

"Listen up." he said lowly, raising his volume just enough for the two groups to hear. "Major Hei, I want you to take your team to the hills around there, twenty meter spread." he gestured to the nearby locations he spotted. "Get a clear line of sight on the bogey."

"Understood sir." Hei nodded; for the man's perceived faults, he knew how to focus on the job.

"SG-1." he continued, silently bracing himself as he pointed to a different spot. "Do the same over there. Keep me covered."

"You're going to talk to the thing, sir?" Nora piped up immediately; he buried the uncomfortable pang of his friends calling him that as he had for many years now, not letting his private disgust affect his expression.

"It usually works. If it doesn't this time, either take it down or fall back to the Gate." he replied to the unspoken concern. "Otherwise I want radio silence until I signal all clear. Stay out of sight, keep your eyes on the prize, and your trigger fingers ready. Move out."

Rising to a crouch, Jaune bolted in a vaguely dignified crab walk around the side of the hill, hearing a few clicks of his friends' M5s opening up from their carry statuses, alongside a half dozen scrambling feet. He didn't look back, and he was sure neither did they.

Darting behind a boulder first, he peeked around the jagged corner to check; the bogey continued to walk as oblivious as before, its robes swishing with its footsteps. Taking a breath, he repeated the action to another boulder, then another, and so on. Each time he closed the gap, he glanced at the target to find the same result, as well as peering at the hilltops. One by one he spotted a quick gesture or sign, recognizing his own team from their barely perceptible waves as opposed to the quicker raised fists the Chinese favored.

Along the way, he began to pick out details about this unknown bogey; even without anything nearby to measure it, he estimated the being's height at perhaps a meter and a half tall. Its slightly trailing robes didn't go all the way to the ground, but stopped at the midpoint of their calves to let knee high boots cover everything down. When he was thirty meters away, he was able to notice a large black stain in the center of the robe's back. But only once he was fifteen meters from the bogey did he realize it was a symbol: a five pointed black star. He tried recalling any faction who used such an icon, but few that he knew of would come to this world, and none would behave as this thing did.

Ten meters was his planned announcement distance, but just as he ducked behind a much too small boulder, his wrist computer winked at him. Wincing at the milliseconds long flash, Jaune flicked on the device (firmly keeping the hologram at bay) to quickly read a message from Blackthorne: it was a blanket signal asking for a status update, confirming there was no jamming at work for their radios, and Pierce had earned himself a short 'talk' about comms etiquette. He didn't bother replying yet, closing his computer down and peeking over the rock.

The unknown halted.

His nerves clenched, darting out of sight. Taking a couple quick breaths, he fished a dimly tinted mirror from his pocket to poke around the corner; the being was still in place, its head twisting back and forth as it glanced at the surrounding area. He noticed its hair at last, two thick braids the same shade as the robes swishing with its movements, along with momentary flashes of brown toned skin. More alarmingly, he saw it was looking in the same direction as the concealed teams.

Jaune gritted his teeth, then purposely smoothed out his expression. Now was no time to be flashing a scowl at an unknown party. Taking a steadying breath, the blond stood up to introduce himself.

A mere second after he rose the being turned around, finally giving him a good look at their target. At the same time, its flat gaze was laid upon the Colonel, momentarily freezing him in place, while he processed the sight as fast as he could. When the biggest detail clicked, he blinked in astonishment.

The bogey was female, a human looking teenaged girl. She looked to be maybe fifteen to seventeen, with mocha tinted skin (heavily tanned perhaps?) underneath her white outfit. What he took for a robe was actually a long tailed jacket, open in the center to reveal a bikini top and a pair of hot pants, both colored ivory. It was a rather skimpy outfit by his standards, but her small form elicited only quiet revulsion. Her shape was too reminiscent of his own daughter for the outfit to affect him. Beyond her outfit, he saw no recognizable weapons.

And yet Jaune felt his hackles rising at the sight of her. She stood utterly still watching him, her unsmiling expression locked upon the Colonel. He was close enough to see her eyes, uneasily taking note of not just her red irises, but the glint within those orbs. Her eyes, they shown with a look that most certainly did not belong on somebody her age. It was the same kind of look he saw in Goa'uld, Tok'ra, Wraith, even the long extinct Asgard; a weight of time far beyond her years, more than what a single lifetime should be able to give.

But now wasn't the time to get cold feet.

Taking one more breath, Jaune left his protective cover to enter the girl's sight, all his movements slow and nonthreatening. His weapon dangled limply as he raised a flattened hand.

"Hi." he called out.

In response she continued to stare.

Put off but not frightened, he cleared his throat and took a step closer. "Hello, I am-"

" _Human_."

The girl's voice was young, but there was no trace of bemusement or laxity to her tone. Underlying the one word was something closely resembling disgust to his ears.

Nevertheless, Jaune slowly nodded. "That's right."

"You are not from this world." she said simply. Her ivory pigtails flicked with a soft breeze, the only thing beside her faintly moving chest to show she was even alive.

"That's also right. The people here are friends with Earth, when you..." he trailed off, halting a slow gesture towards the village when he saw her nose wrinkle.

"You are from Earth." the girl said, eyes narrowed a minute degree. The tension on the air rose a few notches, putting him further on guard.

"I was dispatched from Earth, you caused a quite a scare when you showed up here." Jaune clarified, returning his hand to its previous location.

She nodded slowly, her red eyes flicking towards the hills once more. "There are seven others overlooking this position. Were they sent with you?"

"...yes." he admitted guardedly; she had to have a sensor device on her somewhere, how else would she know where the others were? "It was just a precaution, in case you turned out to be dangerous."

"I am dangerous." she replied flatly.

Something about the way she said that told Jaune she wasn't lying. Briefly clenching his fist, he idly moved Crocea Mors to a more comfortable spot before taking yet another step ahead. He was fully aware of the hostility radiating off the girl at his increasing proximity, but he needed to get a handle on this situation.

 _Hope this works_ , he thought, but aloud he pointed at his chest. "Anyway, I'm Colonel Jaune Arc, of Stargate Command. You are...?"

The girl inclined her head back a few degrees, coolly regarding his demeanor and the offered hand. She was silent for several long seconds, appearing to deliberate on a reply, until finally she slowly nodded.

"I am White Rock Shooter. Why have you come to this world?"

...

 **JNPR will return in Converged Destiny.**


End file.
